


Shopping Hatred

by Tsubaki94



Series: The Pro's and Con's of being Danny Phantom [6]
Category: Criminal Minds, Danny Phantom
Genre: Death, Gen, terrorist attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-10-29 21:54:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 26,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10862853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsubaki94/pseuds/Tsubaki94
Summary: A series off attacks on shopping malls has got the BAU's attention. They are called in to help when the third one begins in the most haunted town in the US, Amity Park. Hoping that Phantom hasn't gotten himself involved they don't know that he has no choise but to get involved.





	1. Chapter 1

The overly energetic toddler that was her son Michael gurgled in joy as he ate a handful of porridge smearing most of his food all over his face. “Come here you.” J.J’s husband, and father of the child, said. Getting a paper-towel he cleaned the child’s hands before cleaning of the face, thinking that the child wouldn’t smear any more food all over his face with clean hands. He was wrong. 

Michael slapped his hands in to the bowl of porridge splashing the lukewarm food in to his father’s face. Both J.J and her eldest son Henry laughed at William’s expression. “Ha ha.” William said drying his own face of and once more tried to clean the toddler up before putting a spoon in his hand. “You could have given me a hand.” He told his wife who was standing by the stove making pancakes with their eldest son.

“You looked like you had everything under control.” J.J said as she helped Henry flip the pancake, he grinned widely as it landed in the middle of the pan. “Alright that’s the last one.” She said turning of the heat.

“But you’ll only get one each mom, we need more.” Henry said stepping down from the foot stool he’d used to reach.

Now it was Williams turn to laugh at his wife. “You’re going to eat four pancakes on your own!” J.J said looking at the five thick pancakes on a plate beside the stove.

Smiling widely Henry nodded taking the plate with all the pancakes over to the breakfast table making sure that his brother couldn’t reach them or throw any of his porridge at them. “You can have two same as mom and I but you’re going to get a bellyache of you eat more.” William said getting up from the table to walk over to his wife.

“Can I have maple syrup?” Henry asked already pulling a chair over to the cabinet to get at the sweet syrup.

Opening her mouth to argue J.J felt her husbands arm around her waist. “Let him.” He said kissing her on the cheek.

Rolling her eyes J.J turned around and put the last pancake on her own plate. “Yes but only on two pancakes.” She said seeing the boy smile, this was a good morning, with the promise of being a good day, she hardly ever got the time to make breakfast with the whole family, and hardly ever had time to do pancakes. “I’ll take Henry to soccer practice today.” She whispered to William giving him a kiss on the cheek. She was looking forward to spend some quality time with her boys for once. And then her phone rang.

Exchanging an all too familiar look with her husband she picked up her phone and looked at the caller ID. She could see on Henry that he knew what was happening and although he didn’t fully understand the importance of her job he knew that when the phone rang in the middle of breakfast it meant that she had to leave early.

“Come on boy didn’t you want those pancakes.” Asked William lifting his son down from the stool he’d climbed on to. 

“Thank you.” J.J mouthed turning around and walking out of the kitchen to answer the call from Garcia. “Morning Penelope can it wait.” She answered.

“Hey J.J I am so sorry to spoil your morning with the kids, but we just got a big case, that is very time sensitive, Emily says wheels up in ten.” Penelope said sounding as thou she was walking hurriedly, the heels of her shoos clicking against hard floor. “Oh and you don’t need an overnight bag.” She added.

No overnight bag that meant that they didn’t think this was going to take long. “How bad is it?” J.J asked peeking her head in to the kitchen to see Henry pour a gallon of maple syrup on his pancakes.

“Not much, if you listen to the radio on your way over you might hear about it, I fill you and the rest of the team in when you get in to the air.” Garcia said followed by the sound of her coffee mug hitting the kitchen counter at the office.

“I’m on my way.” J.J said before hanging up and walking in to the kitchen to kiss her children goodbye. She hated to leave them, she always did, but her work was important and she might be home in time to tuck them in to bed. 

“Mommy needs to go to work.” She said kissing Henry on the forehead, taking the syrup away from him. Stuffing his mouth full of pancakes the small boy smiled up at his mom.

 

Thinking that she would be the last one on board the plane J.J hurried over the airfield to where the BAU’s jet was waiting for the team. It wasn’t before she got on to the stairs that she noticed Luke Alvez limping hurriedly over the tarmac. Knowing that he didn’t want her help even if she asked J.J walked in to the warm cabin of the plane.  
Inside she found the rest of the team already seated. “Morning J.J.” Yawned Prentiss covering her mouth.

“Morning.” Greeted Jareau. “Luke is right behind me.” She said sitting down beside Emily. Luke arrived a moment later and they bustled around a bit before the plane started rolling and they all sat down fastening their seatbelts. 

It was all such a familiar routine that they could do it in their sleep.

When the plane leveled out in the air they all unfastened their seatbelts and got their iPads up. A moment later the screen on the wall flicked to life showing the colorful butterfly better known as Penelope Garcia wearing pink broad rimmed glasses, a matching dress and clip on cat ears in her blond hair. “Morning everyone, unfortunately I can’t say it’s a good one but you are on your way to make sure that it will be a good day in the end.” She greeted everyone.

“That’s some confidence you got in us. What’s the case?” Prentiss asked turning on her iPad and pressing the new file on it. 

“Well as you can see on your tablets, and might have heard about on your way here. There has been a third mall attack, this time the police decided to call in you guys to help seeing as they can’t figure out the attackers motive.” Garcia began.

His eyes moving over the file Rossi picked out the important pieces of it. “It’s no wonder they can’t figure out the attackers MO. They start by jamming all the phones and then locks all the exits, placing explosives at entrances and exits. Holding the shoppers hostage for hours before blowing it up.”

“We sure these are the same people attacking, it says here that no one ever left the mall after it was taken over.” Tara noted scanning through the reports herself.

“Oh they are the same.” Garcia said her fingers hitting the keys of her keyboard. “The investigators who was on the case haven’t been slacking. They’ve found an activist group on the internet calling themselves The True Traditions who has claimed responsibility for all the attacks publishing a new manifesto for everyone of them. I’m sending you a link to their website now.” 

A loud ping was heard as all the tablets received the link at the same time. “Thanks. What more do we know at this time?” Prentiss asked opening the link, looking at the website.

“Sadly not much. I’m right now trying to track the users of the website down but that’s a needle in a gazillion haystacks. However they claim that the attacks are to open people’s eyes to the corruption of the holidays. In this meaning the Christmas holidays and the commercialization of said holiday, which is not fair cus I haven’t gotten around to get my secret Santa her gift yet.” Garcia trailed of and everyone exchanged a look.

Clearing his thought Luke got everyone’s attention. “I don’t believe that’s their goal. If you want to stop the commercialization of Christmas you go to the source, to the manufactories you don’t blow up malls.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Yes that’s what the investigators thought and that’s why they called you.” Garcia said picking up the thread once more. “If our boy wonder was here he would have given you all some interesting facts about the holiday and why we exchange gifts. We were also called because this third attack happened over in another state giving us jurisdiction. And, hold on to your horses the fun doesn’t end there, you are going to the most haunted town in the USA.”

All the agents who’d been in Chicago looked at each other. “Amity Park?” Stephen Walker, the newest member of the team said reading out the name on his tablet before looking at the others feeling like he was missing something important.

“You guy’s are not think…” Penelope began before her eyes landed on Walker and she shut up.

“No, don’t be silly. Got anything more for us?” Jareau asked thinking the same thing Garcia was thinking. ‘Had Phantom gotten himself involved in this already or would he leave it to the professionals?’

Continuing her briefing Garcia gave them live updates of the situation and how the initial explosion had worked to force the people inside the mall to comply.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barley an hour earlier, Danny and his friends were looking for gifts to their family and friends, when shit hits the fan.

“Gah! Why did I even agree to this. Couldn’t you have found any other way to torture me, Like throwing me into the lake or locking me in the thermos for a year. Wait, no, not a year… Make it a year and a half so I don’t have to endure this hell.” Danny wined.

“Oh come on get in to the holiday spirit.” Tucker said an arm around Danny’s shoulders as they walked behind the cheerful holiday loving Sam who was singing a goth version of “Joy to the world.”

“I am in the spirit, can’t you see I am filled with joy over the snow.” Danny said sarcastically, it hadn’t snowed a single day so far in December and walking through the Christmas market outside of the mini mall had not only gotten on his nerves with all the stupid Christmas songs and people wishing them a merry Christmas, which was more than two weeks away. But he’d also gotten soaked in the light rain because he stayed away from the venders and the dry overhang in front of their stalls.

Spinning around on one heal Sam faced them. “You know I think I finally know what I’m going to get you for Christmas this year Scrooge.”

“A Santa hat to cheer up my gloom?” Danny said dodging a stall full of the hats.

“No I was thinking along the line of black eyeliner, it together with the bags under your eyes, your black hair and that scowl would finish this goth gloom of yours.” Sam said taking Danny by the arm. “Come on we have gifts to get, and I’m getting soaked in this rain.”

Pulling her two friends behind her Sam made for the mall. Inside the building it was warm, crowded and different kinds of Christmas music was playing from all the stores. “Are you trying to drive me to insanity?” Danny asked placing his hands over his ears.

Rolling their eyes both Sam and Tucker gripped Danny by the arms and pulled him in further. “Come on you big baby you have to buy gifts as well, next weekend all the last minute shoppers will be out and that’s hell if anything.” Sam said pulling them towards a book store. “This way, I have an idea for a book to grandma.”

“Good I’m getting mom one of those new cook books she likes, she still refuses to use the internet to get new recipes.” Tucker said and now both he and Sam was pulling Danny in to the bookstore.

Getting one clear look of the display window Danny dug his heals in. “Come on Danny.” Sam growled getting annoyed at her friends childish behavior. “You said it yourself, you were going to get Jazz that study planner for Christmas, and aren’t you looking for a gift to give Dannielle as well.”

“I’m ordering things from eBay this year.” He said getting shoved by Sam, in to the sore that was playing a remix of Santa’s coming tonight.

“You should have thought about that last month, if you order things now they won’t arrive until January at the earliest.” Tucker said having already ordered most of his gifts from the internet in October.

“Fine.” Danny grumbled and stopped resisting his friends. It wasn’t their fault he hated Christmas, and they were right he had left the Christmas shopping till very late if he wanted to avoid the chaos of last minute shopping he had to get all the gifts today, or maybe he could just go around and get a couple of gift certificates for his friends and family.

Having found the things they were looking for Sam and Tucker joined Danny in front of the shelves containing planners and expensive notebooks. “How’s it going?” Tucker asked a box and a thick book in his arms.

“I have no idea. I mean I’m not even meeting Jazz this Christmas so maybe I should just get her a gift certificate so she can get herself what she wants.” He said picking up a planner and leafing through it.

“Sure if you want to be a jerk.” Said Sam a large book in her hands. “You know she will love whatever you give her, it’s the thought that counts with gifts.” She picked up a light blue planner with an owl on it leafing through the pages. “And what’s this about not seeing her for Christmas weren’t you going to meet the whole extended family this year.”

Sighing Danny put back the planner he’d been looking through. “Yeah and Jazz has two big examinations over the holidays, conveniently giving her an excuse not to come. I am going to be stuck listening to my stuck up cousins tell me how great they are all through Christmas.”

Returning the planner Sam picked out a second one with a green pattern on a black background. “Well they all look the same on the inside.” She said leafing through the planner. “Just pick one and she’ll be happy.” She shoved the black and green planner at Danny. “Personally I think she’ll like this one, don’t you agree Tuck?”

“Yeah if she isn’t using her iPad then it will be great.” Tucker agreed helping Sam push Danny towards the counter.

“Ooo come on, now this idea is completely useless, she can just as well use her iPad. I’m putting this back.” He turned and had almost gotten past his friends when they grabbed him, pulling him back by the back of his jacket.

“No you’re not, that is a great gift and it is the thought that count’s.” Sam said in a stern voice. “Don’t try to get out of this, now stand in line and don’t look at the books behind you.”

Turning around to look at the table behind him Danny saw the Christmas Carol open to an illustration of Scrooge grumpily walking past a nervous group of carolers. “You just said that to annoy me.” Danny growled turning to face the line in front of the checkout desk.

“Oh looks like Mr Lancer is here to.” Tucker said pointing out their bald teacher over at the classic literature section.

“Think he’s planning our next reading assignment?” Sam asked standing on her toes to see what he was looking at.

“As long as it’s not another classic Christmas story like last year I don’t care what he chooses.” Danny grumbled finally getting to the checkout. He paid for the planner and told his friends that he was going to wait outside for them having had enough of the ‘Santa’s coming to night’ remix, wondering how the employees could stand the torture for three months.

Having to push through a crowd of happy shoppers going in to the store Danny stumbled trying to avoid bumping in to any of them. He ended up hitting someone in the back with his elbow anyways. “Sorry.” Danny mumbled looking up at who he’d hit.

“Watch where you’re going… Fenton?” Dash gave Danny a surprised raised eyebrow. “What are you doing here?” he asked looking around.

“Christmas shopping what else? Sorry for bumping in to you didn’t mean to.” Danny said knowing that he was on thin ice, they had just finished a math exam that Friday and Dash had promised Danny a beating if he failed.

To Danny’s surprise Dash shrugged. “Eh no biggy. I wasn’t looking were I was going. Why aren’t you at the big mall downtown?” He asked being very reasonable for once.

“Why would I be there?” Danny asked glancing back at the store to see Sam and Tucker paying for their purchases.

“Couse of the video. Here let me show you.” Dash said picking up his brand new iPhone 7. Turning on the screen, “It’s buffering but here.” Dash showed Danny what looked like his facebook page and a video that kept loading, but Danny didn’t need to see what was happening in the video. The frozen frame showed his dad sitting on the mall Santa’s lap in front of a long line of children and adults, his mom standing beside him, apparently arguing.

“I’m adopted.” Danny said face palming. “I’m adopted, I don’t know those people they are not my parents.”  
Dash laughed. “Hey what’s going on?” Sam and Tucker asked in unison having come out of the store.

“Nothing.” Danny sighed. “Did you get what you wanted, cus I am leaving.”

“Dud what’s with the gloom I thought your girlfriend was the goth.” Dash said pocketing his phone.

“We are not a thing.” Both Sam and Danny said at the same time, they really had to stop doing that. Dash laughed and Tucker snickered, to the two’s annoyance.

Sam was about to say something in response but was cut off when the Christmas music suddenly died and got replaced by the loud sound of a mic being too close to a speaker, Danny covered his sensitive ears. The sound died down and a horse woman’s voice came over the speakers. “Attention shoppers!” Getting everyone’s attention.

“It is my pleasure to inform you that this corruption of the holiday is ending. If you don’t get what I am saying then let me explain it a little simpler for you.” The speaker cleared her throat. “This is a hostile takeover. You are all our hostages if you try to leave you will kill everyone in here, the same goes for anyone resisting. The bombs placed on every entrance and exit will, when triggered take this whole building down. And if you don’t believe me here’s an example.” There was a beat of silence in which Danny heard the unmistakable sound of something blipping. His eyes were drawn to the source of the sound behind Dash. A large shopping bag was standing abandoned beside a pillar which was holding up the second floor walkway under which the four were standing.

The explosion ripped the pillar apart, breaking the floor and bringing down the second floor walkway. A shockwave pushed people to the floor, half deaf from the sound of the explosion. Dust rose up in the air obscuring the area in front of the bookstore.

“This was just the example, if you don’t do as we order we will bring down this whole building with you all in it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I liked this chapter because there's the normal torture of Danny during Christmas and well ther's a lot of things that can go wrong. Seriusly have you ever tried to get someone a gift only to come to the conclution that it was a bad idea and then go for giftsertificats insted.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The explosin ripps through the mall and when the dust settles, things are horibly wrong.

“... And if you don’t believe me here’s an example.” Sam raised an eyebrow at the speaker turning to Tucker to ask what he thought but her eyes stopped at Danny. Out of the corner of her eye she’d seen him freeze looking away from them and then he moved faster than she thought possible.

It looked more like a dance when she thought about it, Danny had flung out one hand at her and Tucker the green glow of his ghost ray reflecting in his eyes. “Run.” He said in the same moment as he released the power in his hand and the whole world exploded in front of Sam’s eyes.

The ghost ray flung her and Tucker back in to the bookstore crashing in to the table with Dicken’s books followed by flying debris and a cloud of dust. The explosion blinded them and the roar from it left an intense ringing in Sam’s ears.

Coughing and disoriented she pushed herself up to her knees, the whole world was spinning, there were screams and pain. Looking around herself in confusion she could see Tucker push himself up with his uninjured arm. There were people all around them, she could make out some that were crying and some that were standing still shocked but she couldn’t make out Danny among any of the figures in the settling dust cloud.

Her heart skipped a beat as she looked to the entrance, the display windows were shattered and books lay strewn around the floor. Pushing herself up to her feet’s she stood up on shaking legs and managed to take one step forward before her knees buckled and she fell, flinging out her hands to stop her fall she felt bits of glass and rubble cut in to her palms and knees.

Biting down on a cry she glared through tear-filled eyes at the entrance seeing some of the dust settle to reveal a small crater half filled with what had been the second floor walkway as well as some of the pedestrians who were still alive and trying to get away from the crater. Sam didn’t know how long she stood on all fours trying to make sense of what had just happened. She could remember the look of terror in Danny’s eyes as he turned around blasting her and Tucker out of the way. Had he known about the explosion? Why hadn’t he done anything sooner? Where was he? 

Sam had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Putting a hand over her mouth she swallowed hard. ‘No’ she was overthinking things, Danny was a ghost he’d probably made himself intangible or summoned a shield around himself, he couldn’t be. 

A large hand gripped Sam around her right bicep tugging lightly. Looking up she saw Mr Lancer stare down at her. His lips moved but the ringing in her ears made it impossible for her to hear what he was saying. He tugged lightly on her arm and looking around Sam could see the rest of the shoppers move out of the store, using the crashed display windows to exit rather than the entrance were the crater was.

Getting to her feet’s Sam wobbled and was thankful to the teachers support. Glancing over were Tucker had been laying she saw a tall lean man with curly brown hair help Tucker to his feet’s. They followed the rest of the crowd in to the center of the mall were they were sat down.

Slowly Sam’s head cleared and taking a closer look at her surrounding she spotted people moving slowly around them wearing ski masks and Santa hats in different colors, carrying guns pointed at the ground. They were gathering everyone in the center of the mall and pulling down the security fences in front of the emptied stores.

“What’s happening?” Sam asked looking over at Tucker who looked just as confused as she felt.

“I believe it’s called a terrorist attack.” Mr Lancer said eyeing the people surrounding them.

“We should call the police.” Said Tucker taking out his phone from his jacket pocket and looking at it for a moment. “Hu!? That’s odd.”

“What’s odd?” Sam asked moving over to look at his phone.

“I have no service here, I should have service I got the new signal booster and everything but there’s not even any Wi-Fi.” He explained moving his phone around to try and catch a signal.

“It’s no use, they said that all signals are jammed not even radio works.” The curly haired man who’d helped Tucker said. “You are just wasting your time.”

Sharp eyes narrowed at the man who seemed a bit too friendly for Sam’s taste. “Excuse me but who are you?” She asked suspiciously.

The man looked taken aback at her tone and looked over at Mr Lancer. “Relax Samantha, Emery is a friend from college.” Mr Lancer explained putting a calming hand on her shoulder. “I was going to introduce him to you all at the school gathering at the end of the term.” Sam and Tucker looked at their teacher in confusion. “ Mr Emery Peabody is going to take over your history classes starting next year instead of me.” 

“I’m looking forward to teach you all I know about the wonders of our history.” Peabody said. “That is if we get out of this alive.”

Nodding Sam shifted to sit more comfortably jerking as something stung in her leg. Looking down on her left calf she saw blood pooling out from a cut in her stockings staining the dark material a crimson red. “Aw.” She said a bit confused as to why she hadn’t noticed the cut before.

“Sit still we need to treat that wound before you bleed out.” Mr Lancer said seeing the injury on his student. Peabody turned a shade paler and turned his eyes away from Sam.

“It’s okay, Mr Lancer, I don’t think it’s so bad.” Sam said shrugging of her backpack. 

“Miss Manson, I believe I am a better judge when it comes to injuries.” Mr Lancer said. “Here take of your shoe and we’ll use your sock to stop the bleeding.”

Rolling her eyes Sam brought out her first aid kit. “Or we use the alcohol and bandages to treat the wound Mr Lancer. I took a course in first aid last year if you remember and past it with A+. I know what I’m doing.” She said as she untied her bootlaces with shaking hands.

In the end her hands were shaking too much for her to even get the lid of the bottle of disinfectant and Mr Lancer ended up helping her anyway, both Tucker and Mr Peabody had decidedly looked away trying to find a signal on Tuckers phone. Sam bit her lower lip as the alcohol burnt, tears filling her eyes once more and she promised herself that she wouldn’t make fun of Danny anymore when she cleaned his cuts.

Thinking of Danny brought the feeling of dread back to her and she looked over at the crater were she’d last seen her friend. “Where’s Fenton?” Asked Mr Lancer using a cotton swab to clean away the exes blood from around the wound.

“What?” Sam asked a bit confused.

“I saw you three at the store earlier, but I haven’t seen Fenton any were around here!” Mr Lancer said nodding to the crowd around them. “Did he leave before the attack?”

Tears weld up in Sam’s eyes a lump settling in her throat, she couldn’t speak, couldn’t say what she was thinking cause if she did she had to admit that Danny might not be alright, he might not even be alive. Shaking her head she dried the tears in her eyes. “I don’t know where he is, He might be around here somewhere and we just haven’t seen him.” ‘Yeah that was it’. He was somewhere in the crowd afraid to move because of the men with guns and that people might find out about him if he used his powers.

Mr Lancer nodded and concentrated on bandaging up Sam’s injured leg. “Oh I got it.” Tucker said and dug in his backpack before bringing up a pair of orange headphones.

“You going to listen to music or something?” Peabody asked a skeptical look on his face.

“Yeah always calms me down.” Tucker said but Sam understood what he was thinking. The Fenton headphones was the opposite to the Fenton Phones, they were designed to filter out any human sounds leaving only the sounds of inanimate objects and ghosts.

“You know what that sounds like a great idea.” Sam agreed taking out her own, purple version of the headphones putting them on. They had added a microphone to the headset so that they could use them as normal headphones when not trying to listen to Danny. Pressing the power button on the side of the right speaker Sam dialed back the sound of everyone around her until she only heard the sound of moving fabric and combat boots hitting the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright I have this finished but am going to post it over the next weeks so I get a chance to wright the next story as well. Don't worry I always post more than one chaper at a time.


	4. Chapter 4

The market in front of the mini mall had been evacuated and quartered of by police tape, the only people allowed in were the emergency personal called to the place and officers. Dressed in uniform the finest men and women patrolled the line of people and making sure the media was kept at arm’s length. They had let the FBI cars in a moment earlier with equipment and personal to handle the situation and was grumpily letting the two black SUV pass in when one of the drivers showed them a FBI badge.

“One would have thought that the most haunted town in America would be a bit more spooky.” Jareau said getting out of the first car with Rossi, Luke and Tara.

“I don’t know the worst horror movies I watch had a perfectly nice neighborhood on the outside, then someone dies, there’s scary music and they change the lighting to make it look scary.” Tara said closing the car door. “Besides an empty Christmas market could be the perfect place for a horror movie.”

“Let’s have the horror movie discussion on the way home and focus on our work now the clock is ticking.” Rossi said and nodded to an officer coming over.

The rest of the team had gotten out of their car when the officer reached them. “You must be the Behavioral analysis unit, I’ve heard a lot about you, Commissioner Haye. We have you set up in the big tent.” The commissioner said pointing to the large tent he’d been standing outside of.

“Thanks, Agent Prentiss, this is agents, Rossi, Jareau, Alvez, Walker and Doctor Lewis.” Prentiss introduced them. “If you don’t mind I’d like Rossi and Jareau to handle the information you have planned to give to the media. Alvez and Walker will need the plans for the building and the area around it, as well as any sort of footage that hasn’t been uploaded to our technical analyst, and we would also like to interview both the people involved in the previous attacks and have a talk with the officers in charge of the investigation until now.” Prentiss said, well aware of the time pressure and not wasting much time on niceties.

Blinking like an idiot the Commissioner collected himself. “Yes, em…” He looked around and snapped his fingers at two uniformed officers giving them orders to show the agents to where they could find what they had requested. “Your colleagues are already setting up interviews over the web inside, the investigators who had this case are already on their way, it just takes them a little longer seeing as they don’t have a jet to fly in.”

“Understandable. We thank you for your cooperation, would you mind showing us the work space you set up for us?” Prentiss asked seeing the rest of the team leave her alone with Tara.

“Yes, this way.” The commissioner said showing them into the large tent that had been a sort of food service/ restaurant tent until the cops took over. “Here you go.” Commissioner Haye said showing them a corner where they’d shoved two round tables together and placed a large white board at one end and closed of the space a bit by having backed the van filled with computers and monitors in to the tent. The rest of the tent was filled with officers talking, some giving orders and others coming running in and out either carrying things or delivering information. All in all, it wasn’t ideal but the best they had to work with and it would work.

“Thank you. Please have someone tell us when they have the interviews ready.” Tara said stepping out of the way of a young officer carrying a box with files.

“Yes we will.” The commissioner said hurrying of to someone calling his name.

“These are the files that got sent over from the investigators, there’s one more box.” The young officer said in a nasal voice.

“Thank you.” Prentiss said picking up the first of the files and laying it on the table looking through it.  
“If there’s anything else, Just call. I’m the errand boy of the office.” The man said hurrying of.

Taking out a file of her own Tara sat down. “Is it just me or dose the commissioner seem a bit of to you?” She asked scanning the pages of the file.

“A bit yes.” Prentiss agreed taking out another file and finding that whoever had put the files in the box hadn’t organized them by any system at all. “As long as he do his job, lets worry about him later.” Nodding Tara turned to her file and continued scanning the pages.

 

Luke and Walker found the two women moments later sitting in front of the two tables sorting the files in two boxes. “Witness interviews.” Prentiss said handing Tara the file she’d just been reading. 

Putting the file in a pile Tara handed Prentiss the file she’d just gone through. “Report on the explosives.”

Placing the roles of paper and boxes Luke and Walker had gotten from the towns archives Luke reached out and took the file Tara was handing Prentiss. “Mind if I have a look.” He asked and sat down opening the file as if it was an interesting magazine.

“Please go ahead. Did you find anything interesting about the mall itself?” Asked Prentiss putting another file in her own pile.

“In a way.” Walker said and unrolling one of the maps. he placed it on the white board using magnets. “We talked to an architect who specializes in structural integrity. He’d been the one working on the investigation with the others before we got brought in and he told us that depending on how big an explosion the Unsubs are planning, there are two points that when damaged enough will bring the whole building down.” He explained putting two ‘X’ marks at what looked like the back of the building.

Sighing Luke put down the explosives report. “I’m not an expert but clearly we are dealing with someone who knows explosives. This report said that they used a different explosion when initializing the attack to the once they used bringing down the building.”

“They also need someone with knowledge of the buildings structural integrity, I asked Garcia to have a look at who could have gotten access to the plans but apparently all companies and stores connected to the building have access them so that was a dead end.” Said walker and picked up the report Luke had been reading scanning the pages.

“So we could be dealing with someone who has demolition knowledge or worked with explosives before as well as someone who got access to the plans if they aren’t the same guy.” Prentiss rubbed at her eyes. “Have we heard anything from the investigators who were in charge?” she asked looking up at the two.

Looking over the room Luke nodded. “I think that’s them talking to the mayor.” He said pointing at two men whose hair stood on end and shirts were half tucked in, talking to a shorter man wearing a tailored black suit that accented the silver of his long hair tied up with a red ribbon at the back of his neck.

“Well then let’s go talk to them.” Prentiss said getting up stretching her shoulders. “Come on Walker you’re with me on this one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said this story was going to be BAU heavy but hell I have so much respect for the actuall storywrighters of the show.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuck in a hole under ground with Fenton is not Dash's idea of a good day, he'd planed to do other things and somehow he'd ended up burried under a tone of rubble with the persone he liked the lesat in the world.

Pain and discomfort wasn’t new sensations for the young football star, he often pushed himself hard on the practice grounds and wasn’t afraid to take an attacking player head on in a match. But whoever the opposing team had on their defense had clearly been a freight train. His ears were ringing slightly and there was a heavy weight pressing down on his chest.

“Get off.” Mumbled Dash as he blinked, and then did a double take. Lifting his free hand to his face he could feel his eyes opening and closing, his eyelashes tickling his ruff palm, but he couldn’t see anything. Had he gone blind, had the hit that knocked him out caused him to go blind. What team had he been playing, what was the number on that players shirt, he was going to pay for this.

Dash thoughts trailed of as he tried to remember the match but something didn’t add up. He wriggled around for a bit until he got his phone up and turning on the display his eyes suddenly stung from the light. He wasn’t blind. But what had happened then? Where was he? All Dash could see was dark stones an arm’s length away looking as if they could come crashing down at any minute. 

Trying to sit up a bit more comfortably he felt the weight on his chest and left arm roll of him. Turning the light from the phone to see what it was Dash stomach twisted. Fenton’s limp form rolled over to lay face up in the little space that was left. “Hey Twat!” Dash said shoving at Fenton to make him wake up. 

He didn’t. “Hey Prick, Pansy, Geek, Freak, Faggot, Turd. Wake up.” Dash continued shoving Fenton in the side for every insult but getting no reaction. ‘Was he dead?’ Dash wondered shaking Danny. He spent a minute trying to remember how to check for life signs, knowing that they had covered it when he’d trained to be a lifeguard last summer. 

Putting his fingers to Danny’s throat he looked for a pulse. He thought he could feel something but it could just as well have been his own racing heart beat that he felt. “Okay… check for breathing then.” He said to himself holding his wrist over Danny’s mouth. He felt nothing for a moment before there was a slight tickling sensation on his skin as Danny breathed out.

With a sigh of relief Dash lay back, he disliked the freak, even hated him for all the embarrassment he’d caused him from fourth grade and up, but he’d never wanted to kill him. Alright that was a lie he’d wanted to choke him for going out with Paulina, wanted to slam his head in a brick wall at school for taking her to the school dance. He’d wanted to break him that time on the school trip. He’d wanted to hurt the annoying little freak ever sense he’d first met him and Danny had accidentally spilt orange juice on his drawing in art class.

Turning Dash looked at his victim. Sure Danny hadn’t deserved some of the beatings. Yet now they were… friendly. They sat at the same table in the library and Danny would always help Dash when he hit a problem doing his homework. He wasn’t as good a tutor as Jazz had been but he talked less and wouldn’t go one for hours about history or the importance of education, he would just point Dash in the right direction.

Elbowing the unconscious Danny Dash looked away trying to remember how he’d ended up in a hole under a pile of boulders with the freak to begin with. He’d been on his way to the pet store when he stopped outside of the bookstore looking at the display window were they were featuring a romance novel, he’d written down the title of the book thinking that he was going to listen to it when walking Pookie. Someone had bumped in to him and turning around he’d suppressed his first reaction to grip the twat by the front of his shirt and give him a black eye. He’d tried to show Fenton the video of his parents causing trouble at the big mall but it hadn’t been loading. Looking at the screen of his phone he saw that he had no reception at all and the video was still buffering.

After that the freaks friends had shown up, then there was the raspy voice over the speakers and then… Dash rubbed at his temples trying to coax more memories out of his brain. There had been a blur of motion and a flash of green light and the nothing. Going over the memories again and again, he couldn’t understand why he was where he was and what had happened, it didn’t make any sense.

Feeling Danny move beside him he turned his phone to look at the git. Danny’s face was screwed up in an expression of pain and he lifted both hands to his head and rubbed the back of it. Taking his right hand away he looked at it a mixture of confusion and puzzlement. “Hey Freak-ton you awake?” Dash asked in a hiss.

Squinting at Dash Danny blinked a couple of times. “This must be a dream.” He said turning away from Dash and rubbed the back of his head again.

“Sorry Fen-turd but this is real.” Dash growled shifting so that he was sitting more or less. “You remember what happened right, this is all your fault.” He said feeling anger grow inside of him. If he hadn’t stopped himself from hitting Fenton and had just walking away, none this would have happened. If Fenton hadn’t shown him how audio books worked he wouldn’t have stopped in front of the book store. If Fenton didn’t exist he wouldn’t be stuck in a dark cramped hole with him.

Glazed over blue eyes turned to Dash staring at him as if he could tell what he was feeling, what he was thinking. It was unnerving and Dash looked away. Relaxing a bit Danny removed his hands from the back of his aching head and looked at the dark thick liquid on his palms. Blood. He could recognize the smell anywhere and it was running down his back, how bad was it? Did he have to get it stitched up or could he just leave it, head injuries always blead more than was fair.

“Hey aren’t you going to say anything?” Dash asked after a moment of silence.

“Why my nightmares always end the same way.” Danny said wondering why he was feeling so much pain if this was a dream. But then again having had the box ghost hit him in the back with weights from that storage unit auction… Danny’s thoughts trailed of. No, he had been hit during that fight but not in the head.

“You listening to me Freak this is not one of your dreams, if it were wouldn’t we be in Lalaland.” Dash growled turning to face Danny. He was staring at his hands and the blood that covered them. Dash felt a bit queasy and he looked away.

Lowering his hands Danny looked around. “We’re underground.” He noted.

“Yeah we’re underground, stuck in a hole barley large enough for the two of us if you can get that through that thick head of yours cus this is all your fault.” Dash flung out a fist hitting the wall besides Danny’s head an inch from his nose.

Dust began to rain down on them and the two teenagers closed their eyes. “What do you mean this is my fault?” Danny rolled over to stand on all four his back against the large piece of concrete above them. His eyes suddenly growing wider as he felt the concrete piece push back.

“I mean that none of this would have happened if you had stayed a Freak.” Dash growled rubbing his eyes. “You just had to be this… this… Twat.” Dash said in exasperation as if the word explained everything.

“Dash…” Danny began.

“You just had to go to the same library as me, you just had to show off that you were better than me.” Dash flung out with an arm hitting the wall beside him making more dust fall down. “You probably even told your friends about my parents being divorced and that’s why everyone keeps looking at me in school. Cus you can’t keep your mouth shut.” He spat in Danny’s face.

For a moment Dash could have sworn he saw something green flash in Danny’s eyes but then it was gone. “I haven’t told anyone. You just think that’s why everyone is looking at you. It’s simple psychology, my sister talked about it all the time.”

“Here we go the Fenton psychologist, please tell me how I’m a failure who will never amount to anything.” Dash said breathing faster.

“I won’t.” Danny said feeling the boulder press down on him harder as more dust and smaller stones began to fall.

Dash could see the concrete piece move towards them and flung up his hands to stop it. “This is all your fault Fen-turd, we are going to die here crushed by a fucking piece of rock!” Dash shouted at Danny.

“It’s not a rock it’s concrete, there’s a difference that I had a test on and have now forgotten the answer to.” Danny said between gritted teeth’s, there was an ominous rumbling coming from all around them and something wet touched Danny’s knees. Looking down he saw water creeping in.

“Geee mature Fen-turd, pissing yourself in fear, just like fourth grade.” Dash taunted but Danny tasted the sickly sweet fear coming from Dash.

“You punched me in the gut outside of the bathroom before I had a chance to go.” Danny spat back wondering how much of a difference he was doing. He was strong but in his ghost form he could increase his strength.

“Are you even pushing!” Dash asked panic in his voice.

“Are you, I’m holding this thing up all on my own.” Danny shot back drawing on his ghost powers to give him strength.

“You… are a weak… wimp who’d failed… gym without me.” He said breathing hard.

“Next time we are in the library let’s have an arm wrestle and see who’s the strongest.” Danny hissed as more rocks were falling down and the water started to raise, the pressure of the concrete piece increasing.

“We are screwed, We’re gonna die, we’re gonna die.” Dash wined closing his eyes as more dust fell in to them.  
Biting down on a hard reply Danny pushed felling his arms shake as they strained against the force pressing down on them. Light started flickering in the small space and looking down on his own midriff Danny saw the silver rings trying to form and turn him in to Phantom.

He looked up at Dash for a moment afraid that he’d seen them but he hadn’t. His eyes were shut as he cried trying to push back the boulder. Maybe he could save them both, Danny thought.

Dash noticed it when Danny placed a hand on his shoulder and then the awful sensation of the piece of concrete falling down an crushing them. He screamed, not caring any more if his scream was a girly one, he just had to scream.


	6. Chapter 6

“Would you stop screaming.” Danny asked Dash changing his grip on the larger teen so that he was lifting him up by the shoulders.

Dash twisted his head around to get a better look at Phantom stars forming in his eyes. “Phantom.” He said lips quivering. Then he looked around confused. 

“We are intangible if that’s what you’re wondering about. Hold on I’ll have you out of here in no time.” Danny said lifting the two of them up through concrete and bodies of people who’d been less fortunate.

“Where’s Fenton?” Dash asked surprising Danny with his question.

“I got him out before you.” He said phasing out of what had been the second stories walkway and in to the air were dust was settling after the sudden change in the rubble. “he’s out si-”

A sound like thunder breaking the air echoed through the mini mall and Danny fell to the ground. Landing atop of Dash pain flaring up his left side as if he’d been stabbed again. “Phantom what are you…” Dash shut up as he saw men with guns come running at them.

Danny saw them too and scolded himself for not having gone invisible before they cleared the rubble. He’d been shot and there was no one else to blame than himself. Having to concentrate harder than he normally did Danny turned the two of them invisible and flew of.

He carried Dash to a hardware store in the back of the mall landing hard. “The heck just happened.” Dash asked when they became visible, having enough sense to keep his voice down.

Leaning against a shelf filed with different kinds of glue Danny pressed a hand to his side showing his sharp teeth’s. “Got shot.” He said catching a glimpse of Dash sudden panicked reaction.

“Oh my god, oh my god, what do we do, what do we do.” He looked at Danny who rolled his eyes.

“Relax, this is not my first gunshot wound.” He said remembering that one bullet Valerie had once hit him with. Thou it hadn’t hurt as badly as this. “Just give me a sec.” He hissed making his right hand intangible and sticking it in to himself.

“Ew that is so gross.” Dash said but didn’t look away.

“Yeah.” Danny agreed. “Found the bullet AWW!” He yanked his hand out and looked at the small scorch marks on his gloves.

“What’s wrong?” Dash asked backing away.

Trying once more to get the bullet out Danny yelped when his hand came in contact with the bullet inside of him and looking at his hand there were now holes where he’d touched it. “I can’t get the bullet out.” He said stunned for a moment staring at his hand. He’d never encountered anything like that, not even in his parents lab.

“What now should we get a doctor?” Dash suggested looking a bit green.

“And say what, Hey my friend is dead but got a bullet inside of him can you cut it out without killing him.” Danny suggested annoyed and feeling his temper rise. Shaking his head he looked up at Dash who had shied away even more. “I need a pair of tongs.” He said looking around the hardware store. 

It didn’t take long for Dash to find a pair of long tongs but when trying to make them intangible and taking out the bullet Danny found that the burning sensation cut through the metal of the tongs making him jerk them out and let go of them shaking his hand, a tingling sensation in it. His legs were growing weaker and he looked at Dash. “You have to take it out.” He growled.

“What!” Dash exclaimed backing away. “No, no, no, no No. I am not doing that, nope never. Ask someone else.”

“There is no one else around.” Danny said picking up the tongs. “Come on I need your help.” He said holding out the tongs to Dash.

He could see the bully struggle with his decision weighing every pro and con before finally taking the tongs from Danny. “I might end up hurting you even more you know that right.” He said holding the tongs with both shaking hands.

“I’m dead, just shove those in through the entry wound and take the dam bullet out, it’s just as simple as playing operation.” Danny said bracing himself against the shelf.

“I suck at that game.” Dash groaned finding the hole in Danny’s suit and tearing it a bit wider to get to the small round wound oozing green ectoplasm. “I think I’m going to be sick.” Dash said covering his mouth.

“Just take the thing out will yah!” Snarled Danny impatiently.

Nodding Dash took a deep breath before inserting the tongs. Pain exploded from the wound and Danny suddenly needed the support of the shelfs or else he’d fall to the ground. It wasn’t only painful but the odd sensation of a foreign object digging around inside of him made his stomach turn. 

Danny could feel it when Dash found the bullet, it hurt making him bite down on his lower lip to keep himself from screaming. “Think I got it.” Dash said sounding as if he was going to throw up. With a sickly plop Dash had the bullet out, a grin on his face before he turned green and headed for a waist basked nearby.

“Wimp.” Danny hissed the sudden absence of pain making him slightly lightheaded and he suddenly found it a lot easier to just sit down and embrace the cold floor slowly curling in on himself pressing a hand against the wound. It needed to be closed. His eyes rose to land on the superglue on the shelf behind him. “That will work.” He sighed.


	7. Chapter 7

“We’d be willing to help you run down more leads but as you can see, we’ve hit a wall in the investigation at the moment, all we’ve got you already have and more.” The tired inspector who’d been in charge of the mall bombings investigations said.

“Thank you that is much appreciated.” Said Prentiss thanking them for their help an asking them to stay near by incase they came up with something. She left them with the rest of the cops waiting to be called in to action and walked out in to the cold air outside of the tent. 

There was a lot to take in, most the investigators had said was things they already knew but it never hurt to have it told again from their perspective. And it had payed of, the lead investigator had, on a hunch, looked at the building next to the first mall that had been attacked where he found a connecting wall that had fallen down. It could have been because of the mall collapsing but he suspected that it could have been the unsubs way out.

The wind picked up blowing the chilly rain in to Prentiss’s face. She lifted a hand to protect her eyes and saw J.J come running over the marketplace to her. “Hey, what you doing out in the rain?” She asked stepping in to the opening of the tent beside Prentiss.

“Getting some fresh air.” She answered. “The pressure inside the tent is killing me.”

Smiling J.J rubbed her arms. “Yeah but at least it’s warm. Did you find out anything new from talking to the investigators?”

“Some. Walker is of checking a hunch. How did it go with the media?” Prentiss inquired pulling up the collar of her jacket to fend of the cold.

“I’d say good but all I could do was ensure people that we were doing everything we could to get everyone out.” They were silent for a moment after that, feeling the helplessness of the situation. If they couldn’t identify the attackers they couldn’t catch them. Because of the jamming signal they couldn’t even get any footages of the inside. And without knowing their true MO they were nowhere closer to getting a solid profile on them.

The rain that had been hitting the side of Prentiss face suddenly stopped as a shadow fell on her. “It’s a bit cold to be out in the rain.” Said a man with the hint of an accent. Looking up Prentiss found herself staring in to clear cold blue eyes.

“Mr Mayor.” She said, giving him a quick smile. “I thought you were with the media people making sure your townspeople stayed calm.” She looked over at J.J who shrugged.

“Ah yes, turns out that they don’t need my face in front of the camera all the time.” Vlad Master smiled. “I was just coming to ask if you have any new information that you are willing to share? It’s a bit hard to stay idly by when my town is in danger.”

Clearing her throat J.J stepped up to stand beside Prentiss. “At the moment we don’t have any new information. This is not your everyday criminals as you can imagen the case will take some time to crack.”

‘Well said.’ Thought Prentiss. “If you wouldn’t mind Mayor Masters, do you have any idea why these people would attack a mini mall in your town, Amity Park is not the obvious target when it comes to terrorist attacks.”

“Indeed not.” Master answered looking over at the mall. “I can only imagen that it has something to do with driving people away from our town, after all not many people likes to live in a town that has a reputation for being haunted. But I can’t imagen anyone who’d want to drive people away.”

“Still doesn’t explain why this mini mall.” J.J said her arms crossed over her chest eyes unfocused as she thought.

“Couldn’t it be because of this stupid market outside.” Said an oddly echoing voice Prentiss recognized and the mayor jumped as Danny Phantom became visible floating beside the man’s face. “Cus I know a ton of reasons to destroy this hellhole.”

“Phantom!” Prentiss said an odd feeling of relief and annoyance. “What are you doing here?” She hissed looking at the mayor who for some reason didn’t look uncomfortable having a ghost hanging over his shoulder. There was annoyance in his features as he turned to glare at the ghost boy.

“Yes Phantom why are you here. Are you going to help these people destroy Christmas like that time two years ago?” Vlad asked a superior note in his voice.

Rolling his eyes Phantom shrugged. “How many times do I have to tell people that THAT wasn’t me.” He met Prentiss eyes. “I want to he-”

ZAPP!!

A flare of green light streaked through the two agents vision slamming in to the ghost boy sending him flying a good five yards before he hit a stall, smashing in to shelves holding porcelain cats wearing Santa hats and cloths while looking adorable.

The two agents reached for their weapons as they turned to face the shooter. Two men wearing white suits and sunglasses, lifted what looked like unreasonably large guns. “Target hit, moving in to capture.” One of them said in to an arm watch before the two of them started walking forward.

“Chees crackers.” The mayor swore and turned to face the Guys in white.

“Hold it right there.” Prentiss ordered taking a step forward to stand in the way of the two men. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” She demanded making sure that her gun was half way out of its holster.

“Move aside Ma’am this is government business, nothing that concerns you.” The other guy said. But both had stopped in front of her.

“None of my business, you just shot at the mayor of this town, in a quartered of area during a terrorist attack. You could have endangered all the people inside the mall with this stunt.” Prentiss growled glaring in to the eyes of the second speaker, thou she only saw her own eyes reflected in his sunglasses.

“You have to file a level eight complain with the higher ups. We are under orders to destroy that ghost at any cost. So if you’d please move out of our way and let us do our job we will be out of your hair in no time.” The first speaker said his voice completely void of emotions.

“You will leave this area at once.” Said Vlad, cold eyes glaring down at the two men. “I know all too well the destruction your agency brings when you show up. We have people in danger inside that mall and if they die it will be on your heads.” He growled the tone of his voice making it sound like a threat.

The two men in white exchanged a look before taking a step forward. Prentiss was about to pull her gun when the mayor stomped his foot down in a puddle of muddy water splashing it on all of them. She turned to ask the mayor what he was thinking when the two men stopped.

“There’s a breach of cleanliness on section five trouser region.”

“Regulations dictate that the suit must be white at all time and cleanliness upheld. Protocol decrees that a drycleaner must be found at once.” The first speaker said and the two men turned around and walked away, leaving Prentiss and Jareau to stare at the mayor who was rubbing his neck an expression of pain on his face.

“What was that?” Asked Jareau picking up the umbrella the man had dropped when Phantom got shot.

“Guys in white. They are a secret government organization specializing in hunting ghosts. They tend to show up every so often to hunt Phantom. Best way to distract them is to dirty their clothes.” Masters explained cursing under his breath as he rubbed the spot on his neck harder.

“Are you alright sir?” Asked Prentiss securing her weapon and looking past the man at the broken stall, but there was no sign of Phantom.

“Yes, Ecto-rays feels worse than they hurt.” He lowered his hand taking the umbrella from J.J, there was a red spot on the side of his neck as if he’d gotten a light burn. “If you’d excuse me I’m going to make sure the GIW have to go a long way to find an open drycleaner.” He said excusing himself as he walked out of sight digging in his pockets for a phone.

Prentiss and J.J moved as soon as the mayor was out of sight, hurrying over to the crushed stall. They had expected to find Phantom lying unconscious in the rubble but apart from a splash of green goo there was no sign of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh gonna leav you with a clifhanger.  
> Sorry for being a day late I fell asleep before I could upload yesterday.


	8. Chapter 8

Not many people noticed the flash of light behind them, thinking that it was just someone who took photos using their flash. Had anyone bothered to look for the source of the flash, they would have found a young teenager leaning against a dumpster in the shadows beside a restaurant. Pressing a hand against his left side Danny bit down on a cry.

Getting zapped by anti-ghost weapon while in ghost form hurt like hell. He was forcing himself to take slow even breaths as he lifted his shirt and looked at the damage. All things considered, it could have been a lot worse. The blast, unlike the one that Sam had hit him with in Chicago, had burnt through the materials of his suit and a layer of skin the size of his palm. That was the bad part, the good was that the blast had hit the gunshot wound cartelizing it and efficiently stopping the bleeding better than the superglue had.

Braising himself he put a hand on the burns and called upon his frost powers. Mostly he couldn’t do much ice if not in ghost form if it wasn’t a matter of controlling his own body heat. Frost started forming on the burns slowly numbing the pain. That was another perk of the frost powers, he could numb the pain.

Lifting his hand from the wound he admired his work for a moment before tugging down his shirt. Moving in to the crowd Danny was careful so as not to get hit in the side. It was hard and sometimes he used a bit of intangibility to get past people more easily. Reaching the front line he found that officers were keeping an eye on the crowd encouraging them to back away from the police tape.

He was looking for a way past the police when an all too familiar voice called his name and Danny turned to looked over at the speaker, Dash. He’d left the jokey in the same spot a couple of minutes earlier, before flying off to find Sam and Tucker and talk to the agents. Dash made his way over to Danny shoving people out of his way when they didn’t want to move. “Hey Fenton, you alright, you can’t guess what happened, Phantom rescued me and then asked me to help him.” Dash said still a bit giddy.

“That’s nice Dash.” Answered Danny absently, his eyes focused on the cops moving in front of the line and the big tent in the middle of the market. If his life had been a cartoon show a light would have popped up over his head as he got an idea. “Hey Dash I need your help.” He said moving over to stand closer to Dash.

“With what?” Dash asked not in the least interested in helping Danny.

“Cause a distraction. I need to get to the people in charge” Said Danny his eyes on the nearest officer.

“How hard did you get hit in the head Fenton. This is a police thing we are of no use to them.” Dash explained talking slowly as if Danny was stupid.

“I know that but Phantom gave me information that the people need and I don’t think that an officer would listen to a teenager saying that he has information from a ghost. Hell I’d be lucky if they don’t throw me in to the loony bine.” Danny hissed turning to look at Dash. “Just make sure that they have their attention on you for a moment okay.”

Dash looked a bit shocked at Danny before he rolled his eyes. “What do you want me to do try and get in myself?” He asked.

“Yeah that’s a great plan.” Said Danny suddenly shoving Dash at the tape and in to the quartered off area. Dash shouted at Danny as the smaller teenager snuck in to the crowd and watched as officers came to deal with Dash.

The moment no one was looking, Danny ran in to the market hiding behind a market stall where he took a chance and turned invisible. He jogged hurriedly through the all but empty market. Police officers were walking back and forth between the big tent and the parking lot nearby, some carrying things others wearing civilian clothes.

Reaching the big tent Danny snuck in and hid under a table on which there was coffee and donuts. Turning visible he pressed a hand against his hurt side and looked around at the people inside the tent, waiting to see if the Guys in White had noticed his ghost signature while invisible. Danny was almost certain that they hadn’t noticed him when a man in a sheriff’s uniform locked eyes with him.

He flinched back recognizing the man. The officer walked over to Danny’s hiding spot never losing eye contact as he bent down. “Looks like we got rats in here.” He said reaching for Danny. “Come on kid, come out from there, this is no place for you.”

Moving sideways Danny crawled out from his hiding place and slowly straightened to stand in front of officer Grayson. “I need to speak with the FBI agents.” He said taking a step away from the man when he tried to grab Danny’s arm.

“Kid the agents are busy saving life you need to get back on the right side of the police tape.” Grayson said trying once more to grip Danny’s arm but missing when Danny stepped back again.

“I have information they want. Just tell them, they know me.” Danny said feeling his legs hit another table behind him.

“You can give me your information on your way out.” Responded Grayson and this time he bent down and got an arm around Danny instead, lifting him off his feet. The only problem with that move was that his rough tactic meant that he also hit the wounds to Danny’s torso.

An involuntary cry of pain escaped Danny and the officer dropped him at once. Landing on his feet’s Danny bent over pressing his hands to his side breathing hard through gritted teeth’s. “What’s going on over there.” Someone asked and there was suddenly a loud murmur growing inside the tent.

“Some kid trying to sneak in sir, I was just about to escort him out.” Officer Grayson explained and bent down to be on eyelevel with Danny. “Come on kid, you can’t be here.”

“Daniel.” A female voice Danny recognized said. He looked up to meet Prentiss’s eyes. “It’s alright officer we know this kid.” She said to the uniformed men around her.

Grayson rose and looked at the agent. “You sure, he’s a trouble maker?”

Prentiss gave the man a meaningful look. “It’s all right we know Fenton.” She said this time emphasizing the words. Grayson was mumbling under his breath as he left them. “You’ve got some reputation here Daniel.” Prentiss said when the officer had gone. “You alright? Did he hurt you?”

Taking a deep breath Danny shook his head and straightened slowly. “Not knowingly.” He said leaning against the table behind him, his shirt was stained red and his hands shook. “The Guys in White did most of the damage.” He said giving Prentiss a small smile.

“We saw, how bad is it?” She asked reaching for him.

Danny jerked away. “Ecto-rays feel worse than they hurt.” He answered unknowingly repeating the same words Vlad had used earlier in Prentiss presence.

She narrowed her eyes on him well aware that the kid would say anything to avoid a trip to the hospital. “Why are you here Daniel, this is not a ghost matter. Right?” She asked crossing her arms over her chest. Danny could see agent Jareau and Alvez moving towards them from the other side of the tent.

“I thought you might want these.” He said taking out his phone from his jacket pocket. Actually it was Tucker’s spare phone seeing as Danny’s was being repaired after he’d had a fight with an asshole. The screen on the phone was cracked but it still worked.

Taking the phone from Danny Prentiss turned on the screen and was met with a picture of Sam, Tucker, Danny and a dark skinned girl with curly hair, all smiling. Over the picture was the normal question for a password. “What’s the password?” She asked as Jareau and Luke reached her.

“Trash Dash.” Danny sighed and gave the other two agents a smile.

“You’ve changed the password.” Jareau noted as Prentice typed it in.

“Yeah well turns out there’s someone I dislike even more than Dash now.” Danny said with an ironic smile.

“You were inside the mall?” Prentiss exclaimed as the screen opened to the phones photo gallery. “Daniel that was very reckless of you, the unsubs could have seen you and the guys in white could have…” She stopped as she looked at a picture of the crowd inside. Swiping to the next she saw another picture of the crowd, all in all there were seven of them taken from different angles but all had one thing in common. “Your friends are inside.”

“Yeah. And I can’t get them out without people noticing.” Danny answered a lump forming in his throat. He bit his lip holding back the guilt he felt. “We were right next to the explosion, I shot them away from the blast but Dash and I was buried under the rubble, that’s how no one noticed us leaving. I took as many pictures as I could flying out but I think there’s one of the guys in white in there to.”

The agents looked at each other, they now had images of what was going on inside and they might even have a way to communicate with the people on the inside. But that wasn’t what made them exchange looks, when they had first med Danny and his friends they hadn’t been able to get an honest answer from him until he’d accidentally revealed his true identity. Now they kid was talking honestly to them and even seamed to trust them.

Luke saw when Danny’s eyes unfocused, his pupils enlarging and he caught the boy when his knees suddenly bent. “Hey what’s wrong kid?” He asked getting an arm around Danny to hold him up.

Making a face of discomfort Danny rubbed the back of his head. “Concussion.” He said and Luke could see the black hair at the back of the kids neck was plastered to his skin, a dark red streak running down the back of his neck. “I’ll be fine in a minute.” He mumbled.

“You need a paramedic Daniel. These pictures are good enough, we now have a better understanding of what we are dealing with.” Prentiss said deciding then and there that they couldn’t use the kid, he was to young and it would be wrong to put him in danger when there were people actually shooting at him.

Hard determent eyes met Prentiss’s. “I am not going anywhere until Sam and Tucker are safe. I’ll help you in any way I can.” He said and the agents knew that it was going to be impossible to keep him away, who could even hold someone who phased through walls as if they didn’t exist.

“You are seeing a paramedic first.” Prentiss said exchanging a look with Jareau. “Then we can talk about what you can do to help.” Jareau nodded and got an arm under Danny’s shoulder reliving Luke of the burden. “But you have to promise to listen to our orders Danny. This is not some fight that can be won by brute force.”

Swallowing Danny nodded. “If I thought I could fix this on my own I would have done so already.” His lips quivered. “I trust you guys, but I cannot lose my friends.” His eyes flashed a sudden greener and Prentiss had to swallow. The kids determination was something fierce.


	9. Chapter 9

There was a soft murmur in the mall coming from the nervous people gathered at its center. But neither Sam nor Tucker could hear any of them. Their headphones were completely blocking all the sounds around them and it wasn’t until Mr Lancer tapped Sam lightly on the shoulder that she noticed that he’d been trying to speak to her.  
Taking one of the earpieces of she looked at him. “What?”

“I was wondering how you two are holding up, you seem very calm?” He asked nervously looking around. Mr Lancer was clearly not handling the stress of being a hostage very well.

“We have ghosts attacking our school at least once a day Mr Lancer. Compared to that, this is like one of those boring lectures we are forced to listen to ever so often.” Sam said feeling pity for the teacher. “No offence.” She added remembering that Mr Lancer often invited the speakers of said lectures.

“None taken.” Mr Lancer sighed. “What are you kids listening to, any of that new age music, what do you call it, dubstep?”

Sam cringed at the word. “No just music.” She said putting the earpiece back over her ear once more completely ignoring Mr Lancer and his friend.

She was almost back in that hypnotic state where she listened and forced herself to think of nothing when a hand touched hers. Rolling her eyes she turned to face whoever the hand belonged, to finding no one there. “It’s me.” Said Danny in a low whisper only audible through the headphones.

“You’re alive.” Sam sighed in relief taking of one earpiece again to hear Tucker speak.

“Who are you talking to?” Asked Peabody from behind her. Tucker and Sam exchanged looks before nodding having come to a silent agreement.

“A ghost what else.” Said Sam before turning to look at Tucker. “What happened to you Danny, you disappeared in the explosion?” she asked having switched over to speaking in Esperanto.

“Yeah, thanks for shooting us before, that really hurt.” Tucker added in the same language.

“Sorry I just reacted.” Said Danny in normal English. “I lost consciousness in the blast and was buried under the rubble with Dash.” Danny explained his hand still on Sam’s.

“So when the thing sank earlier, was that you?” Tucker asked.

Behind them Peabody talked to Mr Lancer. “What are they saying?” he asked in a hushed whisper.

“I don’t know, I think they are speaking Esperanto but my language skills are limited to English and French.” Mr Lancer replied.

“The great Mr Lancer can’t understand the language of the geek.” Sighed Peabody. “She wasn’t serious when she said she was talking to a ghost was she?” He asked. Hearing him Sam turned around to give him a raised eyebrow before turning back to her own conversation.

Danny explained to them how he and Dash had been trapped under ground and how the small cave started shrinking, and when Dash closed his eyes Danny had gone ghost and phased them out only to get shot. “You should have been there, Dash couldn’t stomach taking out a bullet let alone help me glue the wound shut.” Danny giggled.

“Well I prefer it when you are ghost and it’s not blood I’m dealing with.” Sam said shivering. “It is a lot easier to know that you don’t get any internal injuries while in ghost mode.” She finished feeling Danny’s had tighten over hers.

“So what’s the plan, you going to make everyone invisible and phase us all out of here or something?” Tucker asked rubbing his hands together.

“Can’t.” Danny sighed and Sam felt him move beside her. “I don’t have the power to do that, not even when I’m at a hundred. And I can’t take people out one by one ether someone would notice.”

Nodding Tucker rubbed his chin thinking. “And you can’t take us out, Mr Lancer and his buddy would notice our disappearance.” Sam said nodding over to the two teachers who were recollecting their college days.

“Well that’s another plan in the trash then. I did see the FBI outside and gave them photos I took flying past in here. Hopefully they can get you out.” Danny sighed and leaned back.

“When you say FBI do you mean the agents we met in Chicago?” Tucker asked the wheels turning behind the broad rimmed spectacles.

“Yeah, Jareau and Prentiss were there and I think Luke too.” Danny said and Sam felt him lean forward to talk to Tucker.

“Then I have an idea on how we can communicate with them.” Tucker started digging in his backpack taking out all of the electrical equipment he had, which was everything from powerbaks and chargers to his old PDA, iPhone, iPod, PSD, Nintendo DS and so on. “Hey Danny give me your utility belt, I need some of the equipment on it.”

“What! Tucker do you know how hard it was to get this thing to stick to my ghost form?” Danny exclaimed in a low hiss.

“Didn’t you get a wish from Desire last Christmas and wished for it to be a part of your suit just like I wished the DP would stay on that one time.” Sam felt the two look at her and then the utility belt appeared in front of Tucker without another word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay short chapter but important.


	10. Chapter 10

“Emily he’s a wild card and a child, not to mention a civilian we can’t.” Rossi said standing beside the table in their corner of the tent. Prentiss was standing in front of him chewing on a thumb nail, Tara was going through the last of the files with the help from Luke beside the table. They had sent Walker to get them some food and to check in with Garcia, Jareau was keeping an eye on the kid.

“I know but the only way to keep him from disappearing and doing things on his own like in Chicago is by letting him be a part of this, even if it’s just to take pictures of what’s happening inside and bringing them back to us.” Answered Prentiss still not convinced that she was doing the right thing letting Danny in.

“Didn’t you say he had government people after him. Should we really be helping Daniel if he’s a wanted man?” Luke asked putting a file in one of the four piles on the table.

“They are after him because he’s a ghost but we know that he’s also human.” Prentiss defended. “Beside you should have seen his eyes when he said he couldn’t lose his friends. It was like he was talking from experience.”

Putting down the last file and brushing her hair out of her face Tara looked up at Prentiss. “He’s a good kid and I think it’s the right choice to include him, but we should keep his involvement to a minimum.”

Looking at Luke the man shrugged. “The photos he gave us where useful the experts are analyzing them now.” He said meaning Garcia.

“What could we tell from the pictures?” Rossi asked his change of topic wasn’t lost on the others.

Walking over to the map pinned up on the white board Prentiss picked up a marker and drew a circle on it. “This support pillar is gone and the structural engineer and architect are still arguing over how that will affect the building and where the other explosives needs to be placed.” She started drawing smaller X’s on the map. “We could see these explosives and all the people have been gathered in the center, the stores are closed off with the security fences.”

“That doesn’t leave much room for people to move around in.” Tara noted. “There are probably people of all ages stuck in there, if the unsubs aren’t understanding they might do something drastic when children starts crying. Do we know how they are controlling the crowd?”

Nodding Prentiss picked up a printed out version of one of the photos and put it up on the white board. “They carry an AK47 each, Danny said that he only saw five of them and they all kept a distance from the crowd.”

“And their escape route did he see any sign of it?” Luke asked taking another of the pictures.

“We don’t know and I don’t think he had time to look around much.” Prentiss said looking at the white board. “But now we have something to go on at least. Did you find anything in the files Tara?”

 

“Hold still.” Growled the paramedic as Danny jerked when he tried to take out a piece of concrete from the back of Danny’s head.

“What?” Danny asked looking around at the annoyed man.

“I said hold still.” Said the paramedic forcing Danny to face agent Jareau again.

She gave Danny a soft smile when he flinched again, earning him another exasperated exhale from the paramedic. “Where did you go?” she asked having seen the boy space out.

He scratched at a cut on his cheek earning a slap from the paramedic. “I was just listening to conversations I wasn’t privy to.” He said and looked across the large tent, at the four agents in the opposite corner. 

Following his gaze Jareau raised an eyebrow. “You can hear what they are saying?” she asked looking back at Danny who flinched again.

“No.” He said but nodded his head. “Are you finished yet?” Asked Danny turning to look the paramedic in the eyes.

“If you stay still I will be done in a moment, Your hair is hiding a lot of the smaller pieces.” He said turning Danny to look ahead. Danny sighed and started swinging his feet’s back and forth clearly bored. Jareau had asked the paramedic not to ask any questions as to how he’d been hurt and for the moment the only thing he’d been asked was where he was injured. “That’s the last.” Said the paramedic using a cotton swab and some alcohol to clean the cut to the back of Danny’s head. “I will put a stich in this as well so hold still for me.”

Stopping his legs Danny turned to look at the opening to the tent just as two men in white walked in looking down at what looked like an iPad. Jareau saw them to and glancing back at Danny noticed him sitting completely still following the two men as they walked through the tent and out the second opening. “Alright Done. Now let me see that side you keep pressing a hand to.” Said The paramedic.

Slightly panicked Danny looked at Jareau. “It’s alright show him.” She said putting an reassuring hand on Danny’s shoulder.

Taking a slow and calming breath Danny reached down to the hem of his shirt and lifted it up to show the burns. The paramedic hissed in sympathy. “How much does it hurt?” he asked looking through his bag for the things he needed.

“It hurts.” Danny said afraid to put a scale to the pain not sure how much burns should hurt. “It’ll be fine I don’t need any more…” He began but met Jareau’s eyes and shut up. 

“I’ll put some aloe Vera over this and cover it with gauze but you need to get to a hospital for proper treatment.” Cautioned the Paramedic touching a cold salve to the burns. Danny almost jumped of the table he was sitting on feeling the cold salve touch his burnt skin.

It took the paramedic another five minutes before he had the wounds dressed and after telling Danny again that he should go to a hospital he left to rejoin his friends standing ready for casualties beside the police line.

Walking over to the other agents Danny heard the conversation topic change before it ceased all together. “How’s your head?” Asked Prentiss looking meaningfully at Rossi.

“Still attached to my neck.” Answered Danny. “Did the pictures help? I can take more if you need.” All the agents looked at Prentiss and Danny smiled. They hadn’t decided if they wanted his help or not, and he couldn’t blame them after all he was just a teenager with powers they could hardly imagen.

“Listen Danny it isn’t that we don’t…” Prentiss began but was interrupted by Danny.

“Spare me the excuses, I could hear you talking.” Everyone stared at him jaws slack. “I get where you are coming from, I do. But understand me when I say that I can’t lose my friends.” He looked Rossi in the eyes. “I get that you don’t trust me, I didn’t do much to earn that the last time we met. But I would stop at nothing to make sure my friends are safe.”

Nodding Rossi met Danny’s eyes. “I can relate to that.” He sighed and nodded to a chair for Danny to sit in. “Keep out of trouble for now will you, and we’ll keep you in the loop of things. We will get your friends out safely.”

Nodding Danny sat down at the seat Rossi had indicated. “Oh one more thing you were talking about an escape route.” Prentiss nodded. “Have you checked the sewers? When I was trapped under ground there was water pouring in, and I saw tunnels when I phased through the ground to avoid the Guys in white.” 

Everyone turned to Luke who got up and started looking through the maps on the table rolling out one after another till he found the one over the sewers network. “I think this is it but I can’t tell which tunnel from this map.”


	11. Chapter 11

The agents around the table were looking at maps and files, calling their technical analysist for support and discussing theories with each other almost completely forgetting Danny’s present. It didn’t bother him that much he was at least allowed to listen to their conversation even if he only understood parts of what they were talking about.

He sank back in the folding chair rubbing at his burnt side. There wasn’t much he could do at the moment, he knew that, he also knew that they might not let him help them using his powers, but he had more plans. Glancing over at the white board he was reminded of the time in Chicago when he Sam and Tucker had met the BAU agents for the first time. There had been a similar white board in that room, but instead of having six question marks there had been three photos of dead girls.

All the girls had been attacked by the same murderer and the agents had thought it was some kind of a serial killer. They hadn’t been completely wrong, but Danny knew from his encounter with the killer that they were dealing with a ghost. A ghost capable of possessing whoever touched his cane sword. A ghost who after having possessed agent Jareau tried to use Danny to kill people, to kill them, to kill Sam and Tucker. 

The hard part hadn’t been to resist the killing urge he had just aimed it at Freakshow. The hard part had been to resist the natural temptation to inflict pain on others, on those deserving it. It felt good to give back what he had endured throughout the years, to take revenge on the once hurting him and getting in the way of his dream. It had been such a sweet taste that one time when he’d almost crushed Dash’s skull, if his human half hadn’t gotten in the way he could have had his sweet revenge. 

His heart skipping a beat Danny felt a surge of energy and the next moment he phased through the chair and fell to the ground pain flaring up his injured side. He cursed and crawled on to all fours. “You okay Daniel?” Asked Dr Lewis offering a hand to help him up.

“I’m fine.” He sighed and declined the offered hand wondering if he really was fine. It had been a long time since he lost control over his ghost powers. He got back up to his seat and rubbed at his eyes.

“You sure you alright?” Jareau asked looking at Danny over the file she was reading. “You said it yourself you probably have a concussion.”

Shrugging Danny settled back in to the chair but didn’t get too answered before the last and newest member of the BAU team returned carrying two bags from Nasty Burger. “Hey how’s it going?” He asked setting down the bags on the only clear spot on the table.

“We got some new leads. We now know that there are at least five unsubs in the building, one is a woman. They seem to act according to the manifesto, about fighting against the commercialization of the holiday. And we think we might have figured out there escape route.” Prentiss said filling Walker in on more details.

“You know we need to canvas the possible areas where they might come up. We should talk to water and sewage people and get them to help.” He said looking at the map.

“Rossi is talking to them right now and Garcia is getting a list of possible places where they might come up.” Prentiss agreed.

“We should check buildings as well and look if their owners have any connections to the mall.” Walker said thinking out loud. And then he noticed Danny, he looked at him for a moment clearly wondering what he was doing there but when no one said anything he let it go.

Prentiss phone rang and she glanced at the caller Id once before answering. “Hi Garcia I’m putting you on speaker.”

“Please do I have a lot of information that needs to be processed by you wonderful people.” Garcia said and Danny rubbed his ears when Prentiss turned on the speakers making the “wonderful people.” Sound really loudly for a moment.

“What have you got for us?” Luke asked leaning forward to hear better.

“A ton of information, first of I am sending you the addresses of the possible sites for the unsubs to show up, that includes addresses of buildings that are right on top of the larger pipes, I am still working on narrowing those down.” Garcia said and there was the sound of her hitting a key on her keyboard shortly followed by a ping on the iPads the agents carried. “Then there is a small bit of information about the internet website, it is a total bust, turns out that there is no group of people going by that name I’ve tracked the ip address to Finland and it’s bogy, nothing there is connected to this case.”

“So another dead end.” Jareau sighed and then looked at Danny. “But you said that they spoke about ending the commercialization of Christmas right?”

“That’s what I heard, right before they decided to give everyone an example of how serious they were.” Danny agreed.

“Oh is that the little ghost kid I hear over my speakers?” Penelope asked earning Danny a quizzical look from Walker. “Well anyhow there’s nothing on the web connecting them but I have been doing a lot of cross referencing between the previous malls that was attacked and there are a bunch of companies that had stores and other businesses connected to the places.”

“Can you check if any of them has run a foul with someone working in the ether the building industry or the wrecking industry, we are looking for someone who ether knows about explosives and how to take down buildings or someone who knows about the structural engineering.” Prentiss said looking at the white board and the few notes they had there.

“Also check if there’s any connection to someone who got access to building plans and blue prints.” Dr Lewis added getting a nod from Prentiss.

“That is a lot of new things to go on, I will call you back as soon as I got something.” She hung up the phone.  
Prentiss turned to Walker and Jareau. “You two get started on these addresses, get some of the local police to help you.”

The two agents nodded and taking a burger each they walked off. Danny was reaching for the bag of burgers himself, his stomach growling when Luke picked it up effectively getting it out of Danny’s reach. “You think we’re dealing with a leader who’s got some other agenda than the one he’s telling the rest of the team?” He asked Prentiss looking in to the bag.

“Could be. It’s starting to look more and more like that.” She walked over to the white board and changed the position of one of the question marks so that it stood above the others. “He must be the one with the computer skills, and the one controlling the jammers.” She thought out loud.

“But he needs to be close by incase any of the police tries to get in, that way he can just blow the building down.” Dr Lewis said tapping a nail to the files in front of her.

“Would he really blow the building up with his friends inside, seeing as they are so careful to plan an escape route?” Asked Danny munching on a burger. The agents looked at Danny but he wasn’t holding a burger, he wasn’t even chewing. “Wrong one I’m over hear.” Said Danny Phantom floating behind the agents his back against the dark van.

The two Danny amused themselves for a moment taking in the three agents reaction. Luke jumped seeing Danny beside him and then looked from the human Danny sitting at the table to the ghost eating a burger a confused look on his face. Prentiss was speechless and pointed at the two for a moment before closing her eyes and scratching her head. Dr Lewis had a similar reaction to Prentiss only she rubbed her eyes before looking again.

Smiling Danny met his doubles eyes and there was a flash of light before he found himself floating a foot of the ground a burger in one hand and a pair of headphones around his neck. He landed on the ground and checked to make sure he was in human form.

“What? How? Where?” Luke sputtered looking from the seat Danny had just left to where he was standing.  
Leaning against the side of the van, Danny closed his eyes as his head started throbbing. “You didn’t think I’d shown you all my tricks did you?” He asked more to keep the agents from noticing his discomfort than to brag.

“You were at two places at once. How is that even possible.” Asked Dr Lewis, she’d gotten half way out of her seat when Danny suddenly disappeared from the table. 

Feeling like he was going to get sick Danny put the half eaten burger on the table placing a hand over his mouth. “One moment.” He said and waited for the urge to throw up to pass. He could feel the agents exchange looks of concern but they didn’t say anything.

Taking a deep breath Danny opened his eyes and looked at Prentiss. Taking of the headphones he held them out for her. “You’ll want these.” He said still looking a bit green.

“Headphones?” she asked taking them from Danny and noticing the duck taped side to one of the speakers. “What am I supposed to do with these?”

“Put them on.” He said a mischievous smile on his lips.

Putting on the headphones Prentiss gave Danny a raised eyebrow. “Now what?” She asked before jumping. “Samantha.” She said looking at Danny as if it was a trick.

The other agents looked at Danny for an explanation. “They are Fenton Headphones, designed to filter out human noise and amplifying ghost sounds. Tucker figured out a way to use the ghost wavelength to transmit signals of his own. He calls it a ghost radio, this way you can speak to Sam and Tucker and find out what’s going on inside the mall without me.” He explained giving his half eaten burger a longing look not daring to take another bite just yet.

“That’s great but how could you be in two places at once? That is impossible. Were we talking to some kind of copy before or something?” Luke asked clearly having other priorities at the moment.

Sighing Danny rubbed at his head, he had gotten used to having constant headaches after using that ability every day for over a week, but it always seemed to get worse when he was injured. “That’s the power that’s hardest to explain. I just got the hang of it this summer and it still isn’t my most reliable power.” Danny said glancing at Prentiss who were talking to Sam, getting her to explain what was happening inside the mall.

“That is some neat ability. How does it work? And how come you didn’t use it when we first met?” Luke asked, remembering that he still held the burger bag he took one and put the bag back on the table, getting an odd look from Lewis.

“It’s complicated, I didn’t use it in Chicago because I needed all my powers fighting back then.” Danny walked around the table and sat down on his chair again his apatite gone. “And it gives me a headache.” He sighed leaning forward to rest his head on the table.

“How come I can here Danny talk but not the others?” Asked Prentiss getting the eyes of the other agents on her.


	12. Chapter 12

Danny explained about the headphones and how because of his ghost powers he could be heard on the ghost frequency. He also explained that that was the reason his parents didn’t think most of their gadgets worked, cus they always tried to show that they didn’t work on humans by using Danny.

Working with other officers the BAU got a bigger picture of what was happening inside the mall. Prentiss and Lewis informed the officers of the situation and together with Luke and Rossi they delivered a profile. Danny was half listening to them from his seat in the corner of the tent. He had the odd feeling that he was forgetting something but couldn’t remember what until he reached in to his pocket and picked up his phone.

Thou it wasn’t his phone, it was Sam’s. A memory of her lending him the phone crept in to the forethought of his mind. Unlocking the phone he opened the photo gallery to find pictures from more angles than the once he had taken before. He must have taken them but for some reason he couldn’t remember doing it.

The last pictures were of the explosives, he’d been standing right in front of them to get clear photos. Swiping to the next photo Danny blinked. Not only had he been close enough to touch the bobs but he had touched one turning its outer casing invisible to reveal the inside. Moving his thumb over the screen he prayed that he hadn’t been stupid enough to try and disarm the bomb.

The next photo was of the same device but from another angle, showing black wires tangled together and what looked like a spirit-level. He was running his fingers through his hair swiping back and forth among the pictures trying to remember when he took them, when Rossi, Luke and Tara returned to the table.

Talking among themselves the agents sat down around the table, Rossi and Luke picking up their iPads. Dr Lewis was picking up a file when she noticed the odd look on Danny’s face. “Hey kid is something wrong?” She asked putting down the file she’d just picked up.

“More than it already is?” Asked Danny scratching the back of his head feeling flakes of dried blood mixed in with his hair.

Looking to her team mates with concern she sat down in front of Danny. “Come on Daniel, what are you looking at?” She asked holding out her hand palm up.

At this Luke noticed the phone in Danny’s hand. “Where did you get that, I thought we still had your phone.” He said exchanging a look with Rossi.

“I think it’s Sam’s.” Danny said turning it to look at the stickers of red lips with fangs, on the back covering the apple.

“Let me see that.” Said Lewis plucking the phone out of Danny’s fingers and staring at the pictures she started flicking through them.

“You went inside, Again.” Said Rossi leaning over Dr Lewis shoulders to get a better look. “We asked you not to do that.” He lifted his eyes long enough to see Danny lower his head and raising his shoulders. Was he afraid of getting beaten or scolded for disobeying orders? Rossi wondered seeing the kid draw back from them.

“I think I took them before I promised that.” Murmured Danny his eyes narrowed but unfocused.

“Oh my god!” Lewis exclaimed having gotten to the once showing the inside of the bombs. She raised her head to look at Danny a mix of emotions on her face.

“We need to get this to the bomb squad.” Luke said taking the phone from Lewis. He exchanged a look with Rossi and Lewis before leaving.

The two agents turned to Danny ready to bombard him with questions. The teenager rubbed his face and let out a deep sigh. Focusing his eyes on the two agents he made a face. “You are going to kick me out of the tent now aren’t you.” He said reading the answer in their faces.

“Yes…” Rossi began but was cut off when Prentiss walked up to them her phone held to the right side of her face, the left headphone speaker pressing against the other side.

“Hey Garcia have some news.” She said reaching the table and putting the phone on speaker once more. The atmosphere around the table wasn’t lost on her. She could see the tension in Rossi’s stance and read the shame in Danny’s.

“You there my dearest?” Asked Garcia.

“Yeah what have you got for us?” Asked Rossi never taking his eyes of Danny.

“I got plenty. I did a little cross checking, and by little I mean a lot, these computers are running hot I tell you, you could have a barbeque in this room.” Garcia began her fingers tapping keys. “So as always bad news first, I still don’t have a lead on the leader but I have identified the explosive expert Ike Sandston, and the structural engineer Mimi Berg as being a part of the team attacking. And you want to know the logic behind my reasoning am I right?”

Smiling lightly at the woman’s voice Rossi glanced at the phone. “We’d love to hear your reasoning Garcia.”

“So get this there were a lot of things the malls all had in common, so I went back to the first attack and looked at what we know from it and on a hunch I localized my search to that area and found out that our engineer and explosives expert had launched several complaints at an insurance firm called DALV co. They specialize in employment insurance.” Garcia explained getting Danny’s full attention.

“What where the complains about.” Asked Prentiss.

“That’s the interesting part, you see Ike worked as a flor sales person in a hardware store and got trampled by a mob when the last minute sales for Christmas began, breaking an arm and being traumatized so badly that he couldn’t work and lost his job shortly after that. And Mimi was just out of university working as an extra during the holidays in the same mall when she got put in a corner by a customer and had a mental breakdown. Oh these poor people didn’t get any insurance money and it looks like they’ve been struggling to make ends meet ever since.” They all heard Garcia take a deep breath. “They met online a few months ago on a website were other people with similar problems dealing with DALV co wright, but up until a few weeks ago they completely disappeared of the web. This was two weeks before the first attack.”

“That’s good Garcia, you’ve got an address that we can reach them at? And can you get in contact with this DALV co insurance, I want to know if they have been receiving any threats.” Prentiss asked looking to her colleagues as if asking if there was anything she’d forgotten.

“I am on it, sending you their contact info right now and give me a sec and I’ll find the CEO of DALV co for you.” Garcia’s keystrokes could be heard through the speakers tapping away at high speed.

“Why don’t you just ask him right now. You met him earlier.” Said Danny once more getting everyone’s eyes on him.

“You know the CEO?” asked Lewis in disbelief.

“D.A.L.V, V.A.L.D, Vlad. Vlad Master, he’s got his hand’s in a lot of businesses. He even used the ‘DALV group’ as a cover once trying to get my mom to leave my dad.” Danny explained arms crossed over his chest as he leaned back in his chair.

He could see that the agents didn’t believe him, they exchanged looks for a moment before Garcia spoke. “I’m sorry ghost boy but there’s nothing connecting Vlad Master mayor of Amity Park to DALV co in any way. Well except for the fact that it is Vlad spelt backwards, but that can just be a coincidence.”

“Are you just saying that because you want to stay?” asked Dr Lewis looking Danny in the eyes.

He refused to meet her gaze and stared decidedly in to the table. “You don’t have to believe me just ask Vlad, who knows maybe he has some skeletons in his closet.” Grumbled Danny.

“Honestly Daniel are you still going on with such childish antics.” Said Vlad making everyone jump, Danny even jumped to his feet’s. The well-dressed mayor stood behind and slightly to the right of Prentiss, no one had seen or heard him approach, one moment there was no one the next he was there.

“I’m childish! Who’s the one eavesdropping here.” Danny asked venom in his eyes, his hands balled up in to fists. “If you have anything to do with this Vlad.”

“Temper child, you wouldn’t want to get yourself in to a deeper mess than the one you are in. That is some very thin ice you’re walking on.” Vlad said in the tone of voice an indulgent uncle would use.

Barring his teeth’s in a snarl Danny turned and started to walk away from the table. Passing Vlad he hissed making the older man smile. “Daniel.” Rossi said and after giving Prentiss a glance he followed Danny out of the tent.


	13. Chapter 13

The light rain that had been falling all day seemed to get a boost from the biting wind forcing Rossi to stop at the entrance to the tent and look around the outside for the black haired teenager. He didn’t have to look very hard to spot the boy in the almost empty market.

Rain soaking his jacket Danny was pacing back and forth in front of the crushed stand holding porcelain cats in Santa clothes. Rossi watched the boy for a moment, he was clearly upset, it showed in his walk and the fact that he was kicking the severed head of one of the cats around. Water was running down his face and he often pressed a hand to his left side.

Remembering the first time the met during the case in Chicago Rossi could see a difference in the way Danny was acting. Back then the teenager had been calm, collected, there had always been something going on behind the blue eyes. He’d been in control all the time, even when it looked like he was losing the fight had he been in control. And he’d never been alone during the whole thing. Sure there was the moment when they first found the boy beaten up and bleeding in an alley, and that time… Rossi stopped his trail of thoughts and glanced back in to the tent.

He remembered the interview they’d had with the boy, his friends had been sitting outside the small room their backs to them listening to music. But they hadn’t been listening to music, they’d been listening to Danny using the headphones.

The time they cornered the killer in the alley and Phantom had shown up the first time, Sam and Tucker had been there. Rossi had thought of the two as Side Kicks but maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe they were a team like the BAU, building on each other’s strengths to solve problems. Right now the three teens were working together with the BAU to get everyone out of the mall, not only themselves.

They could all have been selfish and gotten out of the situation without any problem. But they were still in there and Danny. “You blame yourself for leaving your friends in danger?” Rossi asked watching as the teen missed his kick and almost fell in to the market stall once more.

He glanced at Rossi through heavy bangs. Danny didn’t have to say anything Rossi could see that he was right in the boys eyes. “How long have you been standing there?” Asked Danny again pressing a hand to his injured side.

“Not long. You’ll catch a cold if you stand out there.” Rossi said but walked out in to the rain himself and found out that there was a layer of ice covering the cobblestones of the market place when he slipped and almost lost his balance.

“It’s just rain, and not to quote a Disney movie but the cold never bother me.” He kicked the porcelain cat head and watched it skip over the stones.

Rossi came to stand beside the boy feeling a lot colder than he had standing in the tent opening. “We are doing everything we can to get your friends out. Believe in us.” He said putting a hand on the boys shoulder.

He could feel the slightest shiver in Danny’s shoulder, weather the cold bothered him or not he was shaking. “I know, it’s just… I’m just so useless.” He kicked at another piece of a cat. “I have all these powers. I can freeze the ground without blinking, I fall through walls in my sleep but I can’t save all those people stuck inside that mall.”

A hero-complex. Thought Rossi, Danny didn’t only want to save his friends, he could have done that all ready, no the kid wanted to save everyone and that’s why he was so angry. “What made you decide to become a hero?” 

Turning around to face Rossi Danny slipped on the ice and fell down on the wet ground. He winced and looked up at Rossi his eyes searching the older man’s face. “Why do you ask?”

“Cus if I had your powers when I was sixteen I’m sure I would be hiding in the girls locker room or playing pranks on the teachers in school, not fly around and fight ghosts and try to save everyone around me.” Rossi said offering Danny a hand up.

Taking the hand Danny got slowly to his feet’s. “I was fourteen when the accident changed me, and…” Danny bit his lower lip looking to the side. “Fighting ghosts is the only thing that makes sense seeing as it’s my fault the portal opened in the first place.” 

“But you didn’t build the portal, and ghosts can still get in to our world through other means, right?” Rossi asked trying to remember what the kid had told them last time they meet.

Standing quiet Danny looked as if he was thinking over what Rossi had said, his eyes glancing over at the mall. “There is more things to it.” He said finally looking up at Rossi. “It’s hard to explain but I fight because that’s what makes sense for me, Why do you do the job you do?”

Smiling Rossi clapped Danny on the shoulder. “Cus it makes sense.” And speaking of sense, why was he against the boy helping, hadn’t he shown on several occasions that he could be useful. 

Wheels turned in Rossi’s head and his smile changed.


	14. Chapter 14

“Are you serious! You want me to work with the menace of Amity Park!” Said the bomb expert when Rossi and Prentiss explained the plan to him.

“The information we’ve gathered tells us that if we don’t disarm the explosives no one in that building will walk out alive.” Explained Prentiss in a calm professional voice, the polar opposite to the bomb experts.

“And it hasn’t occurred to you that he might want to kill everyone in the building. Dead or alive doesn’t matter to him, he went around town two weeks ago shooting people with that ghost ray of his, for no good reason!” Danny winced hearing this, it hadn’t been him shooting people but it still hurt that they thought he would do something like that.

Putting her hand on Danny’s Sam leaned her shoulder against his, comforting him without words. He was sitting invisible between Sam and Tucker, after he’d explained the situation to them and Sam was waiting for Prentiss to hand the headphones over to the bomb expert, eavesdropping on the conversation at the same time. “I don’t believe Phantom would do that. We’ve worked with him before so the question we are asking you is not if you are willing to work with Phantom to save everybody inside. But if you can set aside your prejudice and do your job?”

“She is bossy. Was she like that when we first met her?” Sam asked in Esperanto looking through Danny at Tucker who shrugged.

“I think she was promoted to the head of the BAU.” Whispered Danny knowing Sam was speaking to him. “And before that she worked for Interpol in London.”

“Fine I’ll talk the Monster through disarming the bombs but if they explode it will be on his head and not mine.” The expert said.

Hearing the headphones over with the agents change hands Danny took the once Sam was wearing and put them on getting a startled sound from Mr Lancer. The three friends looked back at him. “Your headphones, they just… is there a ghost in here?” Mr Lancer asked looking around suspiciously. The mounting tension in the mall was clearly putting some pressure on the teacher who didn’t look all that comfortable.

“I put them in my bag Mr Lancer, relax ghosts aren’t our biggest problem right now.” Sam sighed giving Tucker a meaningful look.

“You say that now Samantha but, the people who died but hours ago in that explosion can likely be ghosting around us at this very moment. It has been shown in studies that ghosts are often formed when someone meet an untimely demise.” Peabody said calmly, taking the whole hostage thing with a pinch of salt.

Danny floated up from where he’d been sitting and put a hand on Sam’s shoulder before flying over to the nearest bomb. “Hey Phantom… Is this thing even working, How do you know he’s on the other end?” Asked the bomb expert, talking to the agents with him.

“Cus he could hear you call him the menace of Amity Park, is that going to be a new nickname, it sounds a bit lame.” Danny replied adjusting the mic.

He had to wait a couple of minutes before the expert came back. “So you really are inside the mall Phantom?” He stated sounding as if he was clenching his teeth’s.

“No I’m standing next to you. Of course I’m in the mall, now how do I disarm these bombs?” Danny sighed and waited for instructions.

 

Jareau and Walker got in to their car again, Walker picking up his tablet and crossing of another location on the map Garcia had provided them. “The next building is three blocks over.” He said putting down the iPad. “You have to take a right and two left to get on to the right street.”

Nodding J.J put on her seatbelt before starting the engine. They were driving in silence before Walker asked the question that had been on his mind ever since they left the tent. “Who was that kid that was sitting at the table?”

Casting a glance at Walker J.J stopped at a red light. “Who?” she asked knowing all too well who Walker was talking about.

“Well maybe not a kid but teenager, black hair, scowl, dark shadows under his eyes, wore a red hoodie.” Walker described familiar with the tactic of evading a question with another.

“Daniel.” She said careful so as not to reveal any secrets that Walker didn’t need to know. “What about him?”

Shrugging Walker scratched his chin. “It was a bit odd, you all seem to know him, but you didn’t introduce me to him. And I think he’s a bit too young to be an agent, so Who is he?”

The light switched over to green and Jareau got the car rolling. “He’s a friend.” She said but the word but was lacking. How could she explain that he was the reason she had been able to go home to her husband and kids that time after Chicago, and still not sound crazy.

It showed in Walkers face that he wanted to push the subject but like so many times before Jareau was saved by her phone ringing. She fished up the phone from her pocket and put it on the dashboard mounted stand. Pressing the green button she spoke. “Hey Garcia tell me you got something.”

“I’ve got something, I’ve got a lot of somethings, at the top of which is the very suspicious David Kreeg.” Garcia greeted and J.J could practically hear the smugness in her voice. “I had a talk with mayor Master, who directed me to this business partner who had contacts with DALV co insurance, and if you don’t remember DALV co is the common denominator in this scenario. Anyhow this contact gave me access to the company emails and what do you know, the CEO have been getting anonymous threats, demanding ransoms, and I just check the banks turns out DALV co has a minus before any numbers on their accounts.”

“So what are we looking for?” Asked Walker showing Jareau that she should turn left.

Clearing her throat Garcia continued. “David Kreeg, Born Jun 24 1990, has a pretty good resume and used to work on DALV co up until a month ago when he was fired. I’ve already taken this with Prentiss and Rossi and they agree he’s the man. I am right now doing a search to find if he rented a car or hotel and…” They could hear her take a deep breath. “Nothing.”

“Maybe he didn’t rent anything in his own name maybe it was in the others name. Have you managed to identify any more of them?” Asked Jareau turning on to the next street.

“Give me a sec.” They waited hearing Garcia type on her end. “I’ve got a list of names of people he’s been in contact with among them Ike and Mimi. Oh and it looks like Mimi rented a minivan in Amity Park last week, the company is keeping GPS’s in their cars I can get a location of it if you give me some time.”

“Send it to our tablet when you get it.” Walker said picking up his phone ready to call for backup.

“Got it sending you the address now, and calling the others to inform them.” Garcia said hanging up the phone with a sharp stab of her fluffy pink pen.

Walker picked up the iPad and turned on the screen getting the address on the gps. “Right we are not far of a couple of blocks south, it’s right beside one of the possible escape locations.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might not be able to post tomorrow so here you go a day earlier.


	15. Chapter 15

The agents gathered a block away, Luke and Tara had been the once to stay behind over by the mall the rest of the team were all standing outside their cars coordinating with SWAT and local PD, making sure to cover all angles. Once the plan was laid they gave everyone five minutes to get in to position.

“Is it just me or is every cop in this town slow to react?” Asked J.J watching as the officers slowly got in to position.

“It might have something to do with this town being haunted.” Said Rossi securing his bulletproofed vest over his shirt. “Imagen that you get a hundred calls every day in a normal town, some are prank calls, some false alarms and others are serious. Add the whole ghost scaring people or causing damage and you don’t know how you are going to react to it. They didn’t exactly cover Ghosts in the academy.”

“I always imagined there would be some sort of ghost busting unit taking care of that.” Walker said putting on a vest of his own. The other team members looked at each other now aware that there actually was a ghost busting unit in the government and that they were more concerned with keeping their suits white than hunting ghosts. Walker read the expression on their faces. “There is a ghost busting unit in this town?” He asked surprised.

“Depends on how you define them.” Said Jareau checking her gun. “There are people in this town who hunt and fight ghosts yes, but there isn’t really a unit.”

Checking his own gun Walker nodded. “Guess a lot of odd people are drawn to ghosts.” 

“Yes, are we ready to move out?” Asked Rossi. The others agreed and they all got in to their respective cars and waited for Prentiss to give the order to move in.

With the use of a heat camera they confirmed that there was someone sitting in the minivan rented by Mimi Berg. Feeling the butterflies in her stomach Prentiss gave the order to move in. She was reminded of old cop movies in which the whole police force were mobilized and came in sirens blaring, lights flashing, wheels screeching. Everyone got out of the cars the moment they came to a halt blocking of the street and giving them cover in case of a gunfight.

There was a moment when they waited for people to get in to the right position before Prentiss and Walker took the lead followed by a group of SWAT. They surrounded the van before Walker, to the silent count of three, opened the back door. “FBI Hands in the air.” Declared Prentiss her gun held trained at the person inside.

The barrel of a gun pointed back at her, held in the thin right hand of a young man in his late twenties. Thick glasses enlarged his watery eyes, the blond hair on his head was thinning and the green shirt and blue jeans could use a washing. His left hand was resting on the keyboard of his computer and he was sitting in a wheel chair. “One more move and everyone in that mini mall is dead.” He pronounced the Mini as if it was venom.

“Put down the gun and come along peacefully, you don’t want to hurt those innocent people.” Said Prentiss her sharp eyes trained on the man’s facial expressions.

The corner of his mouth turned up in to a smile. “What makes you think the people in there are innocent, they are just as guilty as anyone.”

“Even the children?” Asked Walker seeing the small twitch in the man’s eyebrow, knowing that he’d hit a soft spot. “Your friends inside have a lot of patience seeing as they don’t start killing when children starts crying. Was that your order or don’t your friends know that you intend to kill them all along.”

David’s smile turned down. “They will become the same sort of monsters as their parents. Only encouraging businesses to prey on the week, to destroy the lives of those who can’t keep up. They deserve to die, my partners are doing what’s right.”

“You are going to kill them so that they might not destroy others’ lives like your life was destroyed by DALV co. What if some of the people inside are like you, then you would be the one destroying their lives?” Prentiss said keeping Garcia’s short briefing about the man in mind.

The young man’s eyes narrowed on her. “What do you know about it, miss FBI. You have it all, a job, security, money. While I’m stuck at the bottom because DALV destroyed my chances of ever finding another job when they fired me after I saved them from bankruptcy!” He shouted his voice rising as he spoke and he was roaring at the end of his sentence.

“And they couldn’t continue without you. DALV co is falling apart, It has been ever since you left. Killing the people inside the mall won’t make a difference you will only hurt innocent children.” Prentiss said keeping her voice calm. “Put your gun down and let’s talk.”

But he didn’t want to talk, David’s eyes narrowed at Prentiss. “No.” he said and hit enter on his keyboard. Suddenly a lot happened at the same time. Walkers gun went off taking David in the left arm making him in turn dropped the gun. The SWAT moved in pulling the man out of the van and on to the road reading him his rights. The computer that had been in the man’s lap fell on to the concrete and broke. Prentiss saw the screen die and heard it crash.

In the commotion there was a sound like thunder rumbling in the distance followed by the ground shaking. Everyone’s eyes turned in the direction of the sound and the mall, smoke billowing from its roof. A lump settled in Prentiss’s throat, Phantom hadn’t managed to disarm all the explosives in time, they’d been too late.

A manhole cover beside the van opened and people wearing black clothes and carrying gym bags started climbing up. They were unceremoniously grabbed by the police and arrested before they could as much as see what was going on.

Walking over to J.J and Rossi Prentiss exchanged a concerned look with them before picking up her phone, calling Luke and Tara.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You'll get the next chapter this weekend and the final two next week.


	16. Chapter 16

After all was said and done working with the explosives expert turned out to be an education. The first step was always the same, take of the casing and expose the wires. After that Danny explained what he saw, which wires led to what part of the bomb, if there were any lights on and where the bomb was placed in the mall. He soon learned how the bomb was built. There was a wireless receiver that led to the arming mechanism as well as to the trigger. He kept his hands of the wires leading to the receiver, next was the spirit-level which was also part of the triggering mechanism, if he tried to move the thing he risked blowing everyone up. There was the explosive compound, a computer motherboard and more traps in the form of even more black wires. ‘Why don’t they use colored wires it would be so much easier, like in the movies.’ Danny thought to himself as he describe where the different wires were connected.

“Keep talking.” Said the expert in Danny’s ear as he explained what the final bomb looked like on the inside. “Okay this sounds like a different one. Where is it located in the mall.”

Having phased through a lot of walls Danny had to take a moment to orient himself. “In the back attached to a large pillar.” He explained.

There was a murmur of voices on the other side before the man returned. “Alright this might be the most important one, you have to start by cutting…wire… the…” Static broke the connection followed by the beeping like that of a phone being called.

Hearing the first tones of the classic Nokia melody the crowd in the mall fell eerily silent. Slowly turning Danny saw how the people all faced an older man. Then another phone began to ring followed by another and another until the mall sounded like a call center.

“Phantom! Phantom can you hear me? Phantom!” The expert shouted at the other end drawing Danny’s attention back to the bomb at hand. He turned in time to see the green lamp, that on every bomb had been light, turn a bright scarlet.

The curse escaping Danny’s lips were lost in the earsplitting explosion. Throwing his hands up in front of himself Danny’s memories flashed on an image of himself turning to blast his friends out of the way with one hand and summoning a shield with his other. He saw the shield form in front of him taking the blast and sending him backwards his feet’s still planted on the ground.

Digging his feet’s deeper in to the ground Danny snarled his defiance and poured everything he had in to expanding the shield to protect the people now screaming behind him. There was a moment when he thought the flames were going to creep around his shield and then the pressure was suddenly gone. 

There was maybe a millisecond as everything around Danny was still and only the cries of the people behind him could be heard. Than the sound of concrete breaking changed the screams behind Danny to cries of panic.

Dropping the invisibility act Danny switched from shield to ice. Concentrating on creating a stable and strong pillar of ice Danny heard what sounded like someone speaking from a megaphone telling people to get out. That was good, the sheep’s were running away from danger and creating even more panic.

The construct couldn’t support the whole roof, the cracks spread too quickly. Parts of the roof fell down crushing whoever had been standing under it turning the panicked people in to a mob ready to tear anyone in front of them in to pieces just to get out. It was adorable to see the tiny humans change so quickly from afraid but peaceful in to monsters of their own.

A shiver went down Danny’s spine as the taste of pure unadulterated fear hit his taste buds and he took a deep breath feeling the energy flow through him and out in to the ice. The sound of ice breaking joined the sound of the collapsing building. People screamed louder making him smile.

Hadn’t it been the humans own fault for being in the mall. His eyes turned to the exits the people were fleeing through. He’d have cut of the sheep’s escape route to keep them from leaving their pen after all they had chosen to get in to the building to begin with. His eye’s flashed and the ice suddenly grew with new strength. For every breath he took the ice grew even larger, the air around him grew colder. And every time he thought his ice was going to hold the roof up it broke under the pressure forcing him to put more energy and concentration in to preventing the collapsing building from crushing his first proper meal.

 

Even before the first phone rang there was something of about the whole situation. Sam and Tucker, having been cut off from the operations to save them, had made time pass by trying to guess where Danny was in the mall. They could see him take the casings off of the explosives and when the glowing green light turned off they knew he was finished.

They had seen him take of the casing to the final bomb after which the phone started to ring. Sam and Tucker stared at the older man picking up his phone in disbelief before pressing a button and holding it to his ear. Then all hell broke loose and phones started to ring all around them, even Mr Lancers phone played what the teens recognized as the theme song for Doom 2. “The jammers are off.” Tucker said and they both realized what that meant and turned to stare at the last bomb.

They like Danny had seen the lamp switch over to a steady red glow. There was a flash of green before the bomb went off. People once more screamed and got up from the floor pressing away from the explosion.   
But the flames or, exploding force never reached the people, instead a glowing green barrier grew out of a single spot in front of the explosion and Sam could for a moment see Danny flicker in to visibility, his hand’s held up in front of him, his feet’s sinking in to the ground.

Even if people didn’t understand what was going on they understood the very absence of anything behind the barrier when the flames finally died down. When the first crack was heard throughout the mall the panic began. Sam did her best to stay by Tuckers side but got swept away by the crowed.

Tucker on his hand was working against the flow of people. He stood his ground and stared at his friend as he came in to visibility before ice replaced the shield he’d been holding. Seeing what Danny was trying to do Tucker dug in Danny’s utility belt, he still had fastened around his own waist. Coming up with what looked like a walkie-talkie Tucker cleared his throat. “May I have every once attention, please proceed out through your nearest exit at a calm pace.”

To his dismay the people seemed only to hear everything accept the calm pace part. They started to really shove people out of their way and when a part of the roof fell in and crushed some pore man who’d been to slow to get away they became out right nasty, nearly climbing on top of each other to get to the doors.

A chill went down Tucker’s spine and he could feel the change in the atmosphere. It had nothing to do with the panicked crowd or the police outside trying to get everyone to calm down as parts of the celling was falling down around them. Turning to look at his friend Tucker thought that the world around Danny seemed to almost stand still.

Particles flowed peacefully around the ghost glittering in the freezing air. His shoulders were moving up and down as he drew in heavy breaths, something odd seeing as Danny didn’t have to breathe in ghost form. For every rise and fall of Danny’s shoulders the ice seemed to creep further along the celling and the air dropped another degree.

Slowly Danny turned his head glowing hungry eyes following the crowed as he licked his lips. Tucker had to swallow his mouth suddenly dry, he clutched at the small object around his neck never taking his eyes of the pinpricks of red glow in Danny’s green eyes. Was he going to have to use it… could he use it?

Braising himself Tucker started to walk against the stream of people towards his friend. The air grew colder and colder the closer he got. He blew on his hands and put them in his pockets wishing he had a scarf or something to protect his face against the biting cold. When frost started forming on his glasses Tucker stopped unable to take another step closer. All the while Danny’s hungry eyes were following the fleeing crowd.

Fiddling with the utility belt Tucker felt a person step up beside him. She wore white clothes and black gloves, putting a hand on Tucker’s shoulder she gave him a smile, her eyes were covered by black googles and the only color on her came from her short ginger hair. She seemed to pull a rifle from out of thin air and leveled it on Danny.

“No don’t!” Tucker made to shove the woman off her balance but couldn’t before the gun barked. Turning to his friend he saw Danny stiffen something green sticking to his butt. And then it was like someone cutting the strings holding up a marionette. His knees bent and he fell forward a circle of light appearing, and suddenly the air didn’t feel so biting cold.


	17. Chapter 17

His eyes on the humans shoving each other to get to the doors Danny never saw Tucker walk toward him, he never saw the woman walking a steep behind him until the gun shot rang out and she was suddenly in focus.

His mussels tensing Danny could swear a part of him screamed in defiance of getting his meal taken away from him again, and then it was gone together with all the strength in Danny’s body. He felt like a ragdoll, his knees bending and his arms refusing to listen to him as he tried to catch himself, he ended up knocking his head on the iced floor and stars were dancing around his head changing like him in to birds that sounded an awful lot like the sound of ice cracking.

Feeling some control return to the mussels in his arms Danny lifted one hand and swatted at the annoying birds before reaching for whatever it was that had hit him. His hand hit something and a jolt of pain surged through his body. Getting his hand on the object he pulled it out and stared at it.

It wasn’t a bullet that had hit him but a small tranquilizing dart, made of some kind of wood and sporting green feathers. Rolling to his side Danny tried to get a look at who had fired at him but all he saw was Tucker running up to him. “Hey man get up that ice is breaking.” When Danny’s attempt at getting up failed Tucker bent down and got one of Danny’s arms around his shoulders before he heaved his friend up.

“You could help you know.” Complained Tucker when he saw that Danny wasn’t making any effort to move his legs.

It was like his brain was rebooting, the mussels didn’t answer Danny’s commands at first then slowly they began doing as he wanted. ‘One foot in front of the other’ thought Danny concentrating on that while relying on Tucker for balance. At first his steps were more of a shuffle, moving his feets slowly before growing more confident with the motion.

The more control Danny regained over his body the more he felt. His throbbing head disoriented him every time he moved his head to the side or looked at something shining to bright. The sounds of breaking ice and the mall literary falling down around them hurt Danny’s sensitive ears. Tucker had swung Danny’s left arm over his shoulder unknowingly bumping in to Danny’s injured side, and every step he took with his right leg sent pain shooting down his thigh.

With the feeling of his body came the thoughts. At first he was just reacting to what was happening around him but then he thought back to what had actually happened and something didn’t add up, he’d been thinking of something while drawing on the emotions of the people around him and it scared him just thinking of it.

Hearing the foreboding sound of the ceiling breaking the two looked up in time to see a large section of it break loose from the rest and fall. Danny’s brain was still slow to react but his body wasn’t. He reversed their direction and pushed Tucker out of the way of danger. The large piece of the ceiling crashed down taking parts of the floor with it and efficiently blocking their escape route.

“Side door.” Huffed Danny already out of breath. He and Tucker turned toward one of the side-entrances and ran for it, dodging falling parts of the building as if it was another game of dodgeball.

Tucker and Danny were the last ones out of the mall, the police and rescue people had already gotten everyone who were still alive out. They were waiting at the entrance slowly backing away as the roof of the mall fell down behind the two teenagers. Tucker wasn’t as much dragging Danny behind him as running beside him when they got through the shattered glass doors and turning around and walking backwards they watched as the building collapsed in on itself.

“Dang it Jazz’s gift is still in there.” Stated Danny staring at what was left of his ice construction.

“Guess you should just buy her a gift certificate, it’s hell of a lot simpler than this.” Tucker agreed rubbing his suddenly fogy glasses.

“That’s true-” feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand on end Danny turned around and lifted his right arm up in front of him pressing the button on the bracelet he wore there using his left hand. Just in the nick of time to take the ecto-blast on the shield.

He and Tucker let out a yelp as they were flung back toward the mall when the blast connected with the shield. Danny screamed more because of the sharp pain in his wrist than at the shock of being thrown at least two yards across wet cobblestones and landing dangerously close to the still falling wreckage of the mall.

Danny heard the police officers pull their sidearm out of their holsters and the annoyingly familiar voice of Officer Grayson cut through what had been a stunned silence. “Put down your weapons and put your hands behind your heads!”

Lifting his head of the ground Danny saw the two Guys in White stand at the edge of the crowed among the rescue workers who were pushing the civilians away. One carrying the big bazooka like ecto-blaster-10.000 and the other held what Danny recognized as a ghost-radar his eyes fixated on Danny and Tucker. “Stand down officers this is government business.” Said the one holding the bazooka.

“You attack the people I’ve sworn to protect in the middle of a panicked crowed, I think this is my business. Put down your weapons and hands behind your heads.” Ordered Grayson repeating the command.

“Those two are not humans, they are ghosts our equipment confirmed it.” Said the second Guy in White holding up the radar. “Lower your own weapon sir and file a complaint through the proper channels. Stand in the way of government work and you won’t like the outcome.”

The two teens rolled over and got up to all fours, or three, Tucker couldn’t use his broken arm to hold himself up and the armband around Danny’s wrist were smoking and causing him pain whenever he put any weight on it. “Boy’s stay down.” Shouted Grayson seeing them move. Turning to the agents he continued speaking in a commanding voice that he’d probably practiced in police school. “All I see are two injured boys, you two attacked. The radar thing you have doesn’t prove anything.”

“It’s an ecto-detector model A3, they are made to detect any source of ghost related energies however small.” Said Danny meeting the officers eyes. He could see the man roll his eyes in annoyance at Danny, not only was he dealing with the Idiots in White but with a Fenton as well. “They are super sensitive and pikes up every little energy source.” Continued Danny and taking of the headphones he was still wearing around his neck he shoved them to the side.

Having his eyes on the screen of the ecto-detector the agent was showing him, Grayson saw a small dot move away from the larger one. He raised an eyebrow at the agents. “ The kid’s got a point, if you can’t show they are ghost you can’t shoot them.”

The two men in white looked at each other before looking back at the officer. “We already did, he summoned a ghost shield to stop our fire. It will be appreciated that you now lower your weapon and lets us proceed with our work-“ The man holding the bazooka was cut off when the charred and still smoking remains of Danny’s bracelet hit him in the face cracking the sunglasses he was wearing.

Everyone looked at Danny who was standing up his right arm held pressed against his chest red burns showing on blister skin. “There’s your shield.” He shouted at them before lowering his voice. “Tucker give me the belt.” Tucker only hesitated for a moment before taking off Danny’s utility belt handing it over. Taking the belt Danny opened a compartment within it and pulled out a glowing green object. He could see the bazooka man’s eyes narrow and his fingers itch to pull the trigger again.

Dropping the glowing object on the ground Danny stomped on it. The small battery exploded overbalancing Danny making him fall back on to his already hurting ass. The moment the battery was gone the light spot that had been glowing on the radar died and where they’d one moment thought a ghost stood there was only two injured human boys.

Never ever agreeing to having been wrong the Guys in White turned to each other theorizing as to how the equipment could have been wrong. Lowering their weapons they walked in to the crowed of rescue workers and police who’d gotten in between the civilians and the government agents. Grayson lowered his gun and holstered it before walking over to Danny and Tucker. “You two alright?” he asked looking concerned at Danny’s burnt wrist.

“Sometime we should just tell your parents not to put so much ecto-batteries in your things” Sighed Tucker sitting down on the ground beside Danny rubbing bruised ribs.

Smiling back at his friend, Danny sighed. “Yeah but they last so much longer than normal batteries.” Looking up at officer Grayson Danny’s smile disappeared. “I’m sorry for causing you trouble, had I known the trigger happy Men in White were here I would have brought my parents.”

Tucker giggled. “Yeah your dad would totally have crushed them with his bear hug telling them how big a fan he is.”

Danny started giggling to, for some reason the image he got of his dad wearing a Santa hat and hugging the Guys in White seamed hilarious especially considering the face the bazooka man had given Danny when he broke his glasses.

Grayson watched as the two teenagers broke down in laughing and sighed. Laughing was good, and after everything that had happened that day the teenagers were still able to laugh.


	18. Epilog

Driving back to the market J.J and Rossi listened to the radio as news reporters covered the events at the mall. Looking at each other the two agents could hardly believe what they were hearing, but turning on to the street leading to the market they saw what was left of the mall. The roof had caved in but most of the walls still stood, as did a huge pillar of ice at the center.

There were ambulances coming and going, J.J could see what looked like a triage area outside the large tent they’d used as base of operations before. Rossi parked the SUV a bit away making sure he wasn’t stopping traffic.

Getting out of the car the two agents walked toward the large tent looking around at the people. Some were walking around looking for people, others were finding friends and family members who’d been lost in the confusion. Police officers and emergency personal were on sight helping as best they could, J.J noted that the Police officers who’d been slow to act before seemed to be more than competent at handling the aftermath, they comforted the crying and hysterical, gave directions to the lost and all in all acted like the pillars of support.

Reaching the large tent in the center of the market J.J found that most of it had been taken over for triage but the once who were worst of had already been taken to the hospital. She saw Luke standing in the opposite entrance, his back turned to them. They made their way through the tent to reach their colleague.

“What’s the situation?” Asked Jareau reaching Luke.

The young man smiled and shrugged. “It’s what you’d expect the aftermath of a bombing to be. The officers are handling the crowd and the injured are being treated. Lewis went to speak to the press after Prentiss called, she’s over by the big tv van.” Luke pointed to the large van with antennas on the roof.

“I’ll go and see if she needs any help.” Said Jareau before making her way through the crowd. On her way she saw Lewis standing beside a bench where three teenagers sat. Jareau changed directions and walked over to Tara and the teenagers. “Hi there you alright?” She asked Danny and his friends.

“A little worse for wear otherwise we’ll be fine.” Said Sam giving Jareau a relaxed smile. “Did you get the criminals, or was all this for nothing?” She asked the tiredness showing in her sharp eyes.

“We got them, the once who were in the mall was apprehended as they were crawling out of the sewers.” Jareau informed them. “Thank you for your help, your assistance is greatly appreciated people wouldn’t be alive today if not for you.” She looked at Danny talking more to him than the others. ”Please don’t do it again.”

Blinking Danny looked up at Jareau and smiled before returning to observing the palm of his hand. “Is he alright?” Asked J.J looking at Tara.

“He’s just tired.” Said Tucker leaning forward obscuring Danny from their view. “You should have seen it. First he shielded everyone from the explosion and then BAM!” Tucker pointed at what was left of the mall and the ice pillar at its center.

“That if anything takes a lot out of a person.” Sam added smiling softly. “So what’s going to happen to the people who did this. Are they going to prison or something, I don’t think we have the death penalty here but the state where they first attacked do, will they be tried there or are they just getting away with life in prison?”

“That’s a bit crude.” Tara noted and looked at Jareau.

She shrugged. “They’ll go to prison that’s for sure but it’s up to a jury to decide for how long. But I’m pretty sure they are going to be gone for a long time.”

There was a screech from behind them and the teenagers flinched. Looking over their shoulders they could all see a bald man heading for them followed by four people, two dark skinned and two who dressed like they were going to a fancy dinner. Both Sam and Tucker seemed to shrink in their seat. “Crap I didn’t think Mr Lancer would find them in this crowd.” Sighed Sam.

“You know teachers they have this special power to find parents to his students in the oddest of places.” Tucker mused.

“At least he didn’t find my parents.” Sighed Danny moving out of the way as Mr and Mrs Foley reached Tucker first and embraced their son hard enough to break bones. Mr and Mrs Manson’s affectionate greeting of their daughter was the polar opposite, Mr Manson was standing at an arm’s length from his daughter as Mrs Manson fussed over her girl, pinching her cheek and brushing the girls hair out of her face. After Mrs Manson was sure Sam was alright her mood seemed to switch and she began scolding the girl for having gone out with her friends.

At this Mrs Manson turned to Danny her eyes sharp as if blaming him. “I’ve called your social worker she’ll be here in a moment to pick you up. Shame on you for putting my darling Samykin in danger again.”

“Mom it wasn’t Danny’s fault he didn’t even want to go here.” Sam tried to defend her friend but was shushed by her mother and Jareau understood why she had such a strong personality, living with a mother like that couldn’t be easy.

The teacher Mr Lancer moved a bit away from the affectionate parents and stood next to Danny watching and when the parents thanked him for bringing them to their children he was modestly brushing it off. The parents got their children and just as suddenly as they had appeared they were gone leaving Danny alone in a crowd of people who would have died if not for him, and no one knew. “Are your parents any were around here?” asked Lewis looking around for someone who looked like the image she had of Danny’s parents in her mind.

“You’d heard them if they were.” Said Mr Lancer sitting down on the bench beside Danny.

“What did Mrs Manson mean by your social worker Daniel?” Asked Jareau following the woman’s progress through the crowd out of her peripheral vision. Danny slumped down even lower on the bench and then winced and pressed a hand to his side.

Giving Danny a concerned look Mr Lancer faced the two agents. “I’m sorry but may I ask who you are and how you know my student?” The man was suddenly very protective of his student.

“My apology.” Said Jareau giving Tara a look. Tara shook her head, she hadn’t introduced herself ether. “I’m special agent Jenifer Jareau and this is my colleague Dr Tara Lewis, we met Daniel, Samantha and Tucker last month in Chicago.” She caught a hard look from Danny and decided not to say anything more.

“Agents, you’re with the FBI?” asked Mr Lancer looking from the agents to Danny. “What did you get in to during the vacation?” He asked indirectly telling Jareau and Lewis that Danny hadn’t mention anything to anyone else what had happened. How had he explained the injuries?

Rolling his shoulders in a shrug Danny glanced off to the side. “I got in to an accident, you know how clumsy I am.” He sighed and then looked up at the agents. “As for your question it’s a bit hard to explain.” He was spared from explaining anything when what sounded like an air horn broke through the air getting everyone’s attention. “And that would be mom and dad.” Said Danny looking like he wanted to disappear.

“Stay here Daniel, I’ll talk to them.” Said Mr Lancer getting up from the bench and with the ease of long practice made his way through the crowd toward a large RV that pulled up close to where Rossi had parked their SUV earlier. Danny put his hands over his ears as a speaker screeched to life.

“Jack put down the mic this is not a ghost hunt.” Said a woman in a commanding voice.

“But Mads…” A man began and the sound of the speakers being turned off cut him off as well.

“Your parents?” Asked Jareau recognizing the sound of the two speakers from the voicemail she’d listened to the first time she met Danny. Pulling up his hood to cover his face Danny nodded clearly embarrassed at his parents.

“Danny!” Shouted a girl and the two agents turned to see who it was. They were confused for a moment looking at… well at Danny but dressed differently and accompanied by a red-haired woman wearing a worn winter jacket and a handbag swung over her shoulder.

“Is that another copy?” asked Lewis remembering the one in the tent earlier that day. “aren’t you afraid that someone will figure you out if you do this.”

The corners of Danny’s mouth turned up. “You aren’t half wrong.” He said before the two reached him and his copy hugged Danny making him hiss in pain. “Aww aw, Dannielle that hurts.” He said getting the girl to let go of him.

“Sorry, are you okay we heard on the radio and Mrs S called and said you were here and did these two just call me a copy?” The girl, Dannielle, waved a hand at the two agents talking very fast.

“You know you look like me.” Said Danny the smile still on his face.

“Excuse me may I ask who you are?” asked the red-haired woman looking at the two agents. Once more the two gave their names and titles and was in return given the woman’s name. “Mimi Oswald, temporary guardian to Daniel while he’s under my roof.” She shook the hands of the two agents.

“Wait you’re in foster care?” Asked Jareau surprised looking accusingly at Danny. He didn’t answer, he even avoided her eyes.

“Yes Daniel has trouble at home and was there for placed under my care-“ She was interrupted by the loud booming voice belonging to Danny’s dad shouting his name.

The large orange clad man wearing a Santa hat made everyone get out of his way as he ran to his son and embraced him hard enough to break ribs. “Jack you are suffocating him.” Said a woman in blue wearing a red winter jacket, having taken advantage of the path her husband had made to get to their son.

“Sorry.” Said Jack letting go of Danny only to have him being crushed by his mother’s love instead. Jack joined in and embraced them both holding tight. “Now this is a Fenton family hug.” He said in a lower and softer voice.

Jareau could see the words hit Danny, she could see him relax and his eyes tear up before he hid his face in his mother’s shoulder and hugged both his parents. Mrs Oswald moved to say something but the black haired girl got in her way, her blue eyes fixated on Danny and his family.

After a moment Danny’s parents let go of him. He sniffed and dried the tears he’d been trying to hid on his sleeves. “Ah sweetie what’s wrong?” His mother asked cupping his chin in her hands.

“Nothing I’m just tired.” He said genuinely smiling up in to his mother’s face.

“Aw honey.” She said and placed a kiss on his forehead. “Come on, let’s get you home and warm.”

Mrs Oswald cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to break this touching moment.” She said but didn’t look sorry. “Daniel you know the rules it’s time to go.” She turned in way of emphasizing her words. Danny’s face turned dark and emotionless again.

Peeling his mother’s hands of his face Danny turned away from them and followed Mrs Oswald away, Dannielle walking up to him and putting an arm around his shoulders. Mr and Mrs Fenton followed their son with their eyes, Jack holding a protective arm around Maddie as she shook. “There is something wrong when loving parents have to watch their son being taken away by someone they don’t even know.” Whispered Lewis to Jareau and they turned to regroup with the rest of the team as Mr Lancer reached Mr and Mrs Fenton panting from his run to catch up.

“ _Only those who are willing to risk going to far can possibly find out how far one can go_.” T.S.Eliot


End file.
